Fair deal at Brunei IT Expo
August 8, 2004

The roaring turn-out at the recent Brunei IT Expo 2004 (BITEX 04) held from August 1 to 5 has seen some exhibitors laughing all the way to the bank while consumers felt they were given a fair deal in prices too.
 
The high volume of people as well as in sales were also because students of higher learning establishments were just starting their classes and thus the need for them to acquire computers and notebooks to help them in their studies.

There has also been a surge in the interest of notebooks at a time when such computers offer new technology such as wireless Internet, Bluetooth and DVD-CD RW.

"I am buying a notebook because it is now fashionable to bring a computer to certain cafés to surf the net," said a buyer.

Another said he is buying a notebook computer for his children to share as it is easy for them to use it in their own room.

The time has also arrived for a cheap desktop in the market where a brand new AMD Pro 1500+ desktop computer is now available at $599 per set.

Notebook computers cost a thousand-plus per set in the market though some buyers would still go for branded notebooks which cost more.

"The price of 128MB and 256MB pen drives has also gone down considerably, perhaps in anticipation of 1GB pen drive which is now available in Singapore for only $100 plus.

"Other accessories such as multi-media cards also saw a huge reduction in prices. So are laser printers which were sold at $199 each during the exhibition as compared to its normal price of $250," said purchasers.

Cheap colour laser printers have also arrived in the market with a starting price of just over $2,000 each.

One establishment during the exhibition offered cheaper prices of computers and accessories which made other establishments amazed.

"We could not match their prices. Even our cost prices were higher than what they offered now.

"Their oversea suppliers must have given them huge discounts," they said.

Whatever the case may be, cheaper computers benefit the nation as more people will be able to access the worldwide web and learn new software.

"It would increase PC and Internet penetration as well as digital literacy amongst the society in order to bridge the digital divide and realise the nation's goal of building an ICT enabled knowledge society," they said.