Just ahead of the weekend Taiwanese computer industry media started to discuss the chances of the postponed Computex show being hit by further delays, or simply being cancelled in favour of a range of smaller independent online events.
DigiTimes reports that the majority of big name motherboard and graphics card manufacturers have decided not to attend Computex 2020. The likes of "Gigabyte Technology, Micro-Star International (MSI), Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), TUL and Chaintech have all decided to be absent from the tradeshow," asserted DigiTimes. Only Asus is still making preparations for the event, it adds.
Image via Reddit
Meanwhile, the biggest international PC tech firms, like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia "are unlikely to participate at Computex this year due to the coronavirus pandemic," says the journal. Remember, the red, green and blue teams' technology releases are instrumental to product progress for companies like Asus, Gigabyte and MSI. These Taiwanese firms usually piggyback their new computer, device and component releases on big news from the tricolour tech titans.
Taiwan's fast and effective measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 have resulted in a densely populated country of 23 million suffering just 440 confirmed cases so far (no new imported cases for a week, no new locally transmitted cases for 30 days), and 7 deaths in total. The island is just 100km of sea away from China and was among the first hit. Perhaps the Computex planners thought the rest of the world would act similarly, and would be able to be ready for a big trade show at the end of September, but that doesn't look likely now.
The most recent reports say that Taiwan is going to keep its borders closed to foreigners for now. "It is hard to imagine," that borders will open up before a safe vaccine or drug for treatment of the disease becomes available, said Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Shih-chung.
Nvidia GTC 2020 on Thursday
The next big upcoming (digital) event is the 'Get Amped' keynote by founder and CEO Jensen Huang. Check out Nvidia's YouTube channel at 6am PT (2pm BST) on Thursday 14th May to watch this important talk.
