ASUS and Gigabyte may not attend CeBIT 2008 - and other firms too

DigiTimes reports that ASUS and Gigabyte are still considering whether or not to attend CeBIT in 2008. They say the trade show is expensive and offers few benefits for them. The site says this isn't a sole case, as other Taiwanese firms are also considering not to attend CeBIT next year:

According to data released by CeBIT organizers Deutsche Messe, Taiwan was still the largest represented Asian country in terms of exhibitors with 602 companies attending this year. However, this figure was down significantly from 2006 which saw 711 companies attending, and the falling trend is set to continue based on recent comments from company sources.

The list of no-shows in 2007 included Acer, HTC, and Shuttle, a significant result as all three companies have particularly strong performance in Europe compared to other markets. Shuttle announced as early as October 2006 that it had decided not to attend the 2007 event citing previous difficulty in reaching key decision-makers. This move by the Taiwan-PC maker was especially telling as in other years the company was regarded as having one of the largest presences at the show. Additionally, Shuttle has an advantage over most other Taiwan companies as it has a branch office located in Germany which could offer support.

For many of the companies that did exhibit this year it seems that decision was not reached lightly. "In business you are always having to look at your potential ROI (return on investment)," said a representative at one of the largest Taiwan motherboard and notebook makers just weeks before the event, "And with CeBIT we're just not seeing any." In the run up to March 15, sources at many companies were talking about scaled back budgets and last-minute changes of plan, leading expectations to be lukewarm at best; and it seems coming out of the show this poor outlook was either met or exceeded, with Asustek and Gigabyte Technology reportedly already having announced they will likely not be returning in 2008.

Another alarming trend is that key industry players didn't launch any significant new products at CeBIT. NVIDIA failed to launch the G84 and G86 and AMD didn't present its R600.