Berlin, Sept. 7, 2009: Taiwanese ICT has scaled the gates of Europe to win the hearts of the West. To see the new victors in hi tech action one just had only to join the TAITRA press conference at IFA in Berlin with its Product Launches and Press Conference last Sept.4. This is where the entire press corps at IFA seemed to be gathered as 72 journalists from 14 countries explored the latest breakthroughs. Feature products came from such Taiwan giants like Asustek, Hannspree, MSI, Optoma, and FaceVision. International media included C’t Magazine, PC Welt from Germany, Computer Review from Ukraine, HWupgrade from Italy, Aving from Korea, Era TV News and Central News Agency from Taiwan. This entire effort took place to bridge Taiwan to the world as it unfolded on the opening day at IFA with the theme “Taiwan: Bringing the World Closer to you”.

“With 95% of netbook PCs coming from Taiwan, the nation holds a critical position in global ICT,” stated Walter Yeh, Executive Vice President of TAITRA. “ICT tradeshows in Taiwan have found their niche in the world stage, from the world’s most important ICT procurement platform--COMPUTEX TAIPEI to TAITRONICS.”

In his speech, Yeh spoke of the Taiwan’s leading position in providing components and consumers electronics. After him, guest speaker, Director of German Trade Office Taipei, Dr. Roland Wein, underscored the vibrancy of Taiwan-Germany trade, especially in the ICT industry. Following the press conference well known international media interviewed Walter Yeh. Reporters included those from Hitech Pro from Ukraine, PC Welt from Germany, and the IFA International Show Daily.

The speeches were topped off by the new product launches where Asus introduced their latest notebook computers with battery life of 12 hours and ultra slimness. Optoma’s presentation highlighted its pico projector PK 101 while its EP783 projector was used on the spot for the event and clearly has opened a new era for multimedia and home theatre with its pocket-size user-on-the-go. MSI introduced its latest Wind Series all-in-one laptops that ushered in a new life style where technology and life are forever integrated. Hanspree introduced its latest series of TV and HANNS note series that brings fun at the touch of the monitor. Then there was Facevision (a subsidiary of Quanta Group) that focused on its high-definition technologies supporting web cameras which resonates with “High-definition and Energy Efficiency” mentioned by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the opening Gala Dinner.

IFA 2009, the 49th edition, runs from September 4 to 9 with 1,164 exhibitors from 33 countries using 121,000 square meters. The show attracted 220,000 visitors last year and features the seven theme areas of Home Entertainment, Audio Entertainment, Home Appliances, My Media, Public Media, Communication, and Technology & Components.
Key players discover Taiwan best at Berlin expo 
On the opening day, Taiwan Image Hall was visited by Governing Mayor of Berlin, Mr. Klaus Wowereit, Parliamentary Secretary of State, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Ms. Dagmar Woehrl, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of gfu, and Dr. Rainer Hecker who came surrounded by numerous local and international press. Executive Director of the German Trade Office Taipei, Dr. Roland Wein joined with Walter Yeh to show give visitors hands-on trials of some user friendly trend-setting products in the Taiwan Excellence Pavilion. These included the pocket projector by Aiptek, Eee PC S101 by Asus.

Most of the companies from Taiwan exhibiting at IFA are located in the Taiwan Image Hall, including big names like AUO and Hannspree. Products by these makers included many trend-setting concepts including the convergence of transmission digitization and energy efficiency. These two concepts highlighted by Taiwanese at IFA 2009 reflect the great insights and capacity of Taiwanese makers. That ability can be since the PCIE encoding and decoding chipset by Facevision that successfully incorporates high-definition into webcameras, computers and other devices. There’s also Addon’s tube amplifier which provides smoothly merges the ipod cell phones. Taiwanese companies, both big and small, possess the hi tech to continue to pioneer a greener, more convenient digital world.

According to research of the Taipei-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute, the worldwide semiconductor market has gradually become mature since 2000, and growth momentum has become weaker. Furthermore, due to the impact of the global financial crisis, worldwide IC production capacity utilization rates in the fourth quarter of 2008 fell below 70%, and overall production capacity growth came to a halt. Production cuts of DRAM manufacturers even caused declines.