The Top 10 best and worst of Computex

BLAMING VOLANIC ASH for expensive air tickets that apparently deterred the many more thousands expected, the pre-show press conference at Computex 2010 in Taipei set the tone for the rest of the week with meaningless awards and few really new products on display.

Here are our lists of the best and worst of the week at the show.

Best Five

5. It didn’t rain too much
The BBC weather website gave a five-day forecast and it prophesied rain of some description falling every day. Fortunately the weather has been better than expected, and while some rain has fallen today and yesterday, it’s only helped to cool an otherwise hot and humid environment.

4. “Teens will be lusting after that”
The award for the funniest line of the week has to go to Intel’s ultra mobility group executive Anand Chandrasekher. During his ultra mobility session he introduced a startup company’s CEO who was using an Atom chip to power a handheld music studio device for kidz with talentz. After the demo, Chandrasekher said “teens will be lusting after that", referring to the tablet-like device. Well, not if they’d seen the young Chinese booth babes wearing tiny two-piece PVC outfits at many exhibits.

3. Intel’s selective amnesia
Intel claiming it knew nothing about an “innovative platform” its architecture group co-general manager David Perlmutter spoke about the previous day was quite a development. Not only did Perlmutter speak about it on Tuesday, but the mysterious Canoe Lake platform was also referred to in writing in the company’s press kit. Amused smiles were seen on the dozen or so journalists’ faces at an Intel question and answer session with Chandrasekher on Wednesday that received such a categorical “don’t know” about Canoe Lake.

2. Gratuitous PR Speak Award
This year the Gratuitous PR Speak Award goes to Asus, for the following: “More and more people are leaning towards a greener mindset, taking proactive steps to incorporate eco-friendly solutions into their daily lives. The Green Asus initiative inspires products that are designed to care for the environment - with power-saving technologies such as Super Hybrid Engine and greater use of recyclable materials. Products such as the U Series Bamboo Collection and Designo Series LED monitors allow users to stay practical, stylish and energy-aware with the minimum effort and cost.” I wonder what the carbon footprint of the huge Asus exhibit is?

1. 3D display mania
You had to chuckle at the faux excitement from the many companies at Computex over the future of 3D everything. Like High Definition it is another technical advance looking for a customer base. In HD’s defence at least the picture improvement can be appreciated with relatively little technical knowledge. But 3D requires, at least for the time being, battery powered shutter glasses. Now who is going to want to have to wear them just to see Match of the Day?

Worst Five

5. Two sites shenanigans
Computex was split over two sites this year and it took 30 minutes to travel from one to the other, if the traffic was good. Or there was Taipei’s metro system, which while clean and efficient, had no connection between Nangang station - a few stops from one of Computex's sites at the Taiwan World trade Centre - and the Nangang exhibition centre station, the second site that is a couple of miles from its namesake metro stop. Despite a shuttle bus between the two related venues, it could take up most of an hour to get from one location to the other site.

4. Mandarin only
Some potentially good presentations were in Mandarin only including Chinese companies' plans for tablets and netbooks using open source operating systems. Yet they were listed in English in the guide book. We're all for inter-cultural exchange but the need for a crash course in one of the hardest languages on the planet seemed a bit much.

3. No decent food court
A Subway sandwich shop and a tacky convenience store that smells of dodgy instant noodles is not an attractive food court for any trade show centre. Although situated in the heart of a business and hotel district, we don’t recall seeing any restaurants or bars nearby while wandering back and forth to the show from the hotel, which was set up for breakfast and dinner but little in between.

2. Endless wittering
It’s a function of any press trip that the better the freebie gift you get, the less actual news there is to be gained by attending. A similar rule seems to apply to senior executives giving speeches. The longer the speech and the less said at the beginning of it about anything points to no news. Abandon CEO ego trip speeches as fast as possible. Microsoft OEM corporate vice president Steven Guggenheimer came up with a notably long piece of rhetoric that began with his take on the state of the world economy. Yawn.

1. Lack of any surprises
Computex 2010 was devoid of any surprises. Even AMD’s Fusion accelerated processing unit demo had been foreshadowed by years of yacking about the APU concept and its first two chips, Ontario and Llano. Intel didn't have anything really new to talk about, either, so both of the major PC chipmakers ended up reviewing their established roadmaps and saying, "Just wait 'til next year!" One almost got the feeling that the industry could have saved us a trip by announcing that earlier. But we will come back next year.

So there you have it. We know we've had it, this time. µ