The clock is ticking, getting us closer to the 30th edition of Computex, the annual IT trade show that takes place in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. It’s the show to attend if you want to see what Asia plans for this year in the IT field. I’ve been there a few times and all I can say is that it’s something different from the shows in Europe and USA, because of the culture, the way people act and the fact that Computex is in the heart of the IT industry, as many big names have their headquarters there, even if production facilities have moved to cheaper locations (read China, Vietnam, Tailand and so on).

    The 2010 edition of Computex takes place between 1 and 5th of June, so it’s not one of the lengthiest shows, but it’s packed. As there are just a few days till the official opening I thought of giving you a short preview of what to expect there, based on what some participants told to the press and also based on what I believe we’ll see there.

    Computex Taipei 2010

    Computex Taipei 2010

    Tablets all around

    There’s not doubt about it that tablets will be the ‘main course’ at Computex Taipei 2010, after CES 2010 took the lead at the beginning of the year and managed to stir the waves on this new type of gadget. Consumers reacted and here we are talking all day about touch tablets. Definitely a large portion of Computex will be dedicated to tablets, even if many of the companies there are hardware oriented. Expect to see big names presenting their latest achievement, but also small OEM and ODM manufacturers with samples ready to be tested and mass produced with your name (if you got the cash).

    If you are a small company that doesn’t have the resources to build a tablet from the ground up, but believe you can take a predefined model (I don’t know how else should I call it) and make it look better and perform better by small software alterations then Computex is the place to be and where you could turn things in your favor. If you’re a consumer there are many nice places to visit in Taipei, or outside it, good food and very welcoming people to meet.

    Asian presence will be the strongest

    As expected, because Computex is an Asian show, companies based in Taiwan and surrounding countries will be overwhelmingly present there, but you should also expect big names like Intel, AMD, Nvidia, ATI and other giants. ASUS already announced the EEE Pad, MSI told the press it will launch a tablet there, Gigabyte has the T1000 convertible tablets down the road and I expect to see a lot of 100-150$ tablets running Android on an ARM chipset.

    I don’t expect Google Chrome OS to launch at Computex. It just isn’t Google’s style to launch something at an event they don’t control. Too much news at Computex that can steal the thunder. Interestingly enough, Intel has announced they’re gonna launch also something at Computex, a new tablet platform chipset, with a dedicated CPU. I suspect something between the power of ULV and Atom (both computing power and power consumption). It can’t be the other way. Maybe we’ll see slate tablets running Windows 7 fluently, not like we saw on some current hardware (Asus EEE PC T101MT comes to my mind now).

    New technologies

    As we all know, IT shows are great places where new technologies and concepts can be presented to the public and potential partners. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see new touch technologies and interface concepts at Computex. Screens like the Pixel QI and dedicated hardware to convert a device to a touch sensitive one will definitely be there.

    In the end

    If you’ve expected more from this article, you’ll be disappointed, I know. But I don’t want to make speculations just that readers get excited and then read the actual news that will appear once Computex Taipei 2010 starts and see that I was terribly wrong. If you have any insights, or read news I didn’t catch you should drop me a line below so that I can update this post.