I had written just last week that some retailers were keeping their new Centrino 2 laptops for the Comex show, even though the faster, energy-saving portables were already ready to be sold.

Well, sure enough, the likes of Toshiba and Fujitsu went out in force with their new lappys at the tech bazaar at Suntec City this weekend.

For example, Toshiba’s Portege M800 line (with 13.3-inch screen) and Satellite M300 (14-inchers) got a Centrino 2 refresh, with new P8400 and P8600 processors and Intel 5100 Wireless N built in. There is also the faster in-built 4500MHD graphics that comes with the new Intel GM45 Express chipset.
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Visiting the big IT fairs today is very different from the experience 2-3 years ago. The last few tech shows (we have four every year, one every quarter, in Singapore which coincides with the school holidays) has become a lot more complicated and a lot more competitive.

Brands generally don’t set up their own booth and instead work with their resellers. It’s not a problem when there are 1-2 resellers representing each major brand at the show but when there are five different resellers within a 30 feet space representing the same brand, its a major confusion.

That was the case with one Acer booth where there were like Challenger, Harvey Norman and three other retailers all selling Acer laptops at the same booth. They all wore the same uniform, booths looked identical and sold the same packages and deals for the “official” deals listed on the brochure but each also had their own special deals (which is usually not on the brochure).
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It’s been more than a month since Intel launched its Centrino 2 platform, which includes CPUs that are faster yet use up less battery. Yet, you’ll probably be surprised that there aren’t that many models out there in stores in Sim Lim Square and Funan the DigitaLife Mall.

The reason, as Techgoondu found out during Sim Lim/Funan geek walkabouts the past two weekends, was because retailers were holding out for this week’s Comex tech bazaar at Suntec City.

Instead of pushing out new models, which are already announced to the press and on their websites in the past couple of weeks, manufacturers don’t have their stocks out in force in the shops yets.
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