The world's major technology firms displayed their cutting-edge products in Asia's biggest information technology trade fair here last week and generated multi-billion dollar business opportunities, organisers said on June 4.
Among the products, displayed during the three-day exhibition that opened from June 5 at the Taipei World Trade Centre, was the fourth generation (4G) wireless high speed Internet services better known as WiMAX, said Chang Li, an official of the Taipei Computer Association.
WiMAX stands for World-wide Interoperability for Microwave Access and is similar to the more familiar WiFi (wireless fidelity) that most laptops are equipped with. WiMAX has a higher capacity and operates across much longer distances and allows for voice, video, Internet and other mobile services.
The inauguration of WiMAX mechanism is especially fast in India, Pakistan, and the Middle East where infrastructure construction is not as good as in the industrialised countries. Giant US chip maker Intel and manufacturer Motorola are investing heavily in WiMAX and deployments of the system are taking shape world-wide.
The Taipei International Information Technology Show also featured Nintendo's popular family game Wii, Apple's iPhone and Microsoft's much-heralded Windows Vista platform, Chang said. The so-called "four I" products were definitely the trendy items, he added.
Taiwan is the world's biggest supplier of many IT products including notebook computers, liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, cable modems, switches and motherboards, according to the island's Institute for Information Industry.