October is a busy month for tech and that comes to no surprise as this is the month that the IT companies roll out their aces in time for the holiday shopping spree. If consumers are going to spend for that new gadget, it’s going to happen within the next 90 days. Last week I just came from the province of Xiamen in China where local dealers and the media were given a tour of the Lenovo factory for tablets and smartphones. We toured the amazing phone museum (photo wall above) and several portions of the manufacturing process (photo below). The Lenovo plant churns out 15 million units per year with 2,799 employees. Together with Open Communications, Lenovo PH launched three killer devices for the holidays and will be unveiling their first Smart TV before Christmas.
Later this week Samsung will be unveiling the much awaited Samsung Galaxy Note 2, the highly anticipated “phablet” sequel to the first Note and already the local telcos are pitching their data plans to consumers.
Around the same time this week, Sony Philippines will also be holding its 2012 Christmas party — I just had to write about that because they are, as far as I know, the first Christmas party of the year! The invite implies phones, cameras, laptops, Smart TV’s and tablets!
Last but not the least, we cannot discount perhaps the most exciting event of the year — the official Microsoft WIndows 8 launch in Singapore! I had heard rumors that Microsoft global was preparing for a big simultaneous launch on the 25th of October. I was quite thrilled to receive an invite from the PH team to witness the launch of the new platform next week.
Why does Windows 8 excite me? Simply put, this is Microsoft putting all their eggs into one basket and taking a huge (but calculated) risk to develop something new and it isn’t just software. The Windows 8 ecosystem puts forth the tablet, desktop and yes to some extent Windows Phone 8 into a cohesive deal (although I understand the apps environment for WP8 are quite different). I was also quite happy to learn that PC gaming on Windows 8 works quite well and the myth that it sucked was debunked in the earlier builds.
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On a related note (since we’re on the topic of Microsoft), they guys were kind enough to send over some raffle items — a few slick desktop speakers AND a brand new Windows Phone from HTC. I’ll be raffling these soon so sty tuned here and (follow me) on Twitter (@jayvee).
w00t! Christmas is coming early, thanks to Microsoft!
