In the year 2020, if something is not cancelled outright, it is inevitably postponed. Or in the case of Computex 2020, postponed and then cancelled. While some conventions and conferences can move to a more virtual experience, when it comes to tech where companies want to give people a chance to play around with their new products, this isn’t really an option for the big conventions that thrive on this sort of experience.
For Computex, which is traditionally held in Taiwan, the convention was initially postponed from June to September. But with the outlook of the COVID-19 pandemic not getting any better, organisers have now decided to cancel it outright with the next event scheduled for June 2021.
Computex now joins the Mobile World Congress along with developer conferences from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and the big gaming events like E3 in being cancelled, leaving many companies to announce and launch their new upcoming products in events they will arrange on their own – and likely only in a virtual manner. Though considering that COVID-19 has also slowed down manufacturing, it’s likely that many of these new products would not have been ready anyway.
With 43 000 visitors across 171 countries, Computex is one of the biggest tech conventions in the world. It remains to be seen if it can survive through to next year or if companies rather just arrange their own events and skip expensive convention floorspace, as that may be the way of the future.
Even if getting devices in the hands of more people becomes a greater challenge.
Last Updated: June 15, 2020
