It's hands up for versatile hybrids
Developers, answering calls for portability with power and flair, will showcase devices in Taipei
The world's top high-tech developers are working on devices that blend presently competing user demands, from normal keyboards and fast processors to lightweight touchscreens, as shipments of traditional PCs keep falling.
The firms, often from global hardware hotspot Taiwan, will roll out their hybrids at an annual Taipei technology show with an eye towards selling the same devices to world consumers by the end of the year, analysts say. Expect giant smartphones - easily used as tiny computers - thin ultrabook PCs with touchscreens, and tablets with retractable keyboards.
Users dependent on mobile computing have slowed purchases of notebook PCs, once considered the most portable thing out there, as tablets and smartphones un-dwarf them. As a result, companies such as Taiwan's Acer, backed for more than 30 years by PC sales, are being pressured to get bigger or add new hardware.
Microsoft is expected to help with a new mobile operating system to defuse disappointment over Windows 8, and Intel says it will release a new line of microprocessors to span different device types.
How it all comes together should be apparent at Computex, which runs from June 4-8. "What we see at Computex is a leading indicator of what's to see in the second half of the year and the beginning of the following year," said Sean Yang, assistant vice-president at Taipei-based market research firm TrendForce. He predicts an explosion of hybrid tools.
"If you're using a device for content consumption, there's no need for a keyboard or a mouse, and, vice-versa, there's no need for touch if you're going to actually use it for homework or work," Yang said.
PC shipments dropped 3 per cent last year en route to a 4 per cent loss this year, fellow market research firm Gartner says, as consumers turned to tablets. That trend hit Acer, which reported first-quarter profit growth of just of 0.6 per cent, down 9.4 per cent over the previous three months. Taipei-based rival Asustek Computer posted a 5.8 per cent drop in profit in the first quarter.