It is PC fair time again. Though I wont’ be attend any PC Fair this year (until Luqman has reduced his crying tempo and rate) , I still have interest browsing for the best deal on the net. As usual, Dell slashing their price for certain model up until MYR2000. HP, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba done the same I believe,  but since their bulk sales coming from their retail or channel partners, it is hardly to find any detail or promotion on their local website.

In Kuala Lumpur, as usual , the fair would be held at KLCC convention centre. I don’t even know that Manjung, one of the nearest town at my home town (Teluk Intan) now has their own PC Fair. I wonder when Teluk Intan will have one. PC Fair’s event and place detail can be found on their website.

2008 PC Fair first round schedule

Best Deal

Normal price: 2,399

Normal price: 2,299

Normal price: 3,599

Normal price (Tesco) : 1,899

PC fair vs ICTS Computer Fair

I remember sometime back, there is an attempt to have another PC fair which known more as ICTS Computer Fair by PIKOM’s members who dissatisfied with how PC fair was organized.  However, it seems that it only runs for 2 years, 2004 and 2005 if I’m not mistaken. In fact, their domain name, icts.org.my and their website (and even the cache version) no longer available in WHOIS . Having single major PC Fair is better (and more crowded), since all IT players can be gathered in one place which will ensure that fair is bigger and attractive enough to bring more international brands joining the fair. And at the end, end user like us is the real winner here. There are more choices available, and be able to spend without any hesitation knowing there is no other fair that could offer similar things

PC Fair’s price cheaper than computer shop such as lowyat??

Of course there is no definitive answer for this questions. PC Fair has been in most states in Malaysia including small towns. In order to attract the shoppers, the price could goes down pretty significant compared to the local shop,  especially if the booth operated by big companies from KL or Penang or which has wide range of distribution. Local computer shop also, usually sell their stuff with more discount and more free gift (sometime useless) to win the competition with the bigger competitor from outside

But the situation is different in big cities like Kuala Lumpur or Penang where PC Fair’s price is almost similar with what offered in shops at Lowyat or Digital Mall but with one exception. Big and renown brand or distributor such as Dell, Canon, Apple and HP will normally open their own both and offering discount you can’t get else where on the their product. Taking example like Dell above, you can’t get this price(discount up to RM200) except during PC Fair or festival (the discount not at this best). Similarly with HP, such as when ZakiY bought a new printer and get a lot of goodies. I also agree with the fact that, sometime, it is not the price that matters, but it is the goodies that matter most(from ZakiY’s comment). You might want to have a look discussion about this on Lowyat.net at here and here


PC Fair VS CES VS CeBIT

CES and CeBIT are arguably among the largest PC and electronic fair in the world. Back in Asia, we have Computex Taipei, the larget IT shows in Asia. It is matters of time and the right strategies before PC Fair will level with all these bigger and well known fairs who has more exhibitor from around the world showcasing the latest product.  It might not happen on short period of time, but I’m hopeful that PIKOM together with the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC) can do something to further enhance the visibility of this fair on IT’s world map.

On related development, I’m fully supportive of PIKOM’s proposal to have new ministry especially for ICT to spearhead Malaysia’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry. Why?? I feel that the current ministry has too many portfolios, energy, water and communication,  thus less efficient to tackle on each portfolio effectively. Just my 2 cent