After years of covering news from the Computex conference in Taiwan, this year I’ll be there in person bringing you the latest in technology. Computex is the largest ICT trade show in Asia and the second largest in the world. This year is the 33rd edition and will bring 1,700 exhibitors and 5,000 booths. There’s an expected crowd of over 130,000 visitors, including 36,000 international visitors.
While I won’t make it to the forums, they do give a sense of the themes of the show – Cloud Industry Forum, Mobile Commerce Industry Forum, Smart Living Industry Forum and a Design Forum. Building on these key these of the show, there’s a a number of areas I’ll be looking out for this year.
Intel Haswell processor
It’s been a long time coming, but finally we’ll get to see the 4th generation Core i5/i7 Intel Processors in action. There’s some wild numbers being thrown around in terms of power efficiency, with some projecting up to 50% improvements in battery life.
That means the same device getting 5 hours this year, could get as much as 7.5hrs next year. While we wait for the next evolution of batteries to arrive (don’t hold your breath), the only real option if to reduce power requirements. If the estimates are true, Intel will have a serious hit on their hands, regardless of any performance improvements they make.
Mobile devices
Building on the processor discussion above, this has massive implications for tablets. It may well see the reduction in ARM-based devices which really are a necessary evil to deliver competitive battery life. Now that Intel mobile chips could be competitive, not the same, but close enough, developing and using ARM processors may start to decrease.
As for smart phones, the last big collective launch of devices was CES in January. While there’s been big manufacturer launch events since then, Computex is 5 months on from then and will setup the mobile landscape for the rest of 2013. Naturally the big one missing from the conversation will be Apple with the iPhone 6.
Automotive
Car tech is now a big part of the technology industry. As cars become computers on wheels, almost every manufacturer has smartphone integration now, together with an app platform and steering wheel controls for voice support.
Computex will give us a window into the next chapter of the connected vehicle experience. Ford will have some big announcements from the show and we’ll be there to cover it.
4K + UHD
We already know that Asus is bringing a 4K monitor to Computex and they won’t be the only ones. One of the biggest questions about 4K content creation and distribution. I hope the vendors at Computex really bring serious solutions to these problems.
What we know is the price of TVs will pretty much take care of itself with an ultra competitive landscape putting downward pressure on prices. The length of the 4K adoption curve will be dramatically impacted by the methods and affordability of content creation and distribution.
Clearly ‘in the future’ we’ll be getting 4K content over the internet, but what’s the solution for someone who buys a 4K set in 2014? There has to be a better answer than providing a proprietary media server box. Take Sony’s for example.. does that mean you’ll only be able to get Sony created movies?
What do you want to see?
As much as I’ll be scoping out the show for what I think are standout devices and services, let me know if the comments what you want to see covered and I’ll be sure to deliver a post on it.
Disclaimer: Jason is attending Computex as a guest of Ford APA, flights and accommodation have been paid for by Ford.
