It was only the second day and importantly a weekday, when the four-day BCS Digital Expo 2010 that started at Dhaka Sheraton on Wednesday, was already busy with a colossal curious crowd.
The venue was buzzing with a huge turnout even on a hot, humid day. It was the craze for the IT gadgets that are increasingly getting low-priced and becoming a must for many.
Most of the visitors, regardless of age and profession, were enquiring about the essentials of laptops and netbook that are increasingly gaining popularity mainly among the youth, corporate professionals and businessmen.
Rubaba Naoshin, an MBA student at North South University, came to the fair to get an idea about the configurations and price of a netbook.
“I need a laptop for my class presentation and assignments. So I prefer a netbook, as it's portable and the price is also within my reach,” she said.
Azibur Rahman, who works for International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, was also enquiring about a netbook.
“In fact, I am looking for something that I can carry always with me in my bag and get connected with the internet whenever I need to do,” he said.
“And that's why I want to buy a netbook,” he said.
Visitors were also concerned about the power backup of netbooks or laptops, as frequent outages are looming large in the city.
According to industry people, netbook was introduced to the local consumers in 2007 and gained popularity among businessmen and students shortly, mainly for its portability and prices.
And the sales are going up fast, as around 2,500 netbooks of different brands were sold in 2007, which increased to around 5,000 in 2008, and 7,000 in 2009, said Giasuddin Ahmed, a member of Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS).
All top brands such as HP, Compaq, Asus, Dell, Acer, Fujitsu, Hasee, Gigabyte, Lenovo, Toshiba, Great Wall, BenQ and Apple were displaying netbooks along with laptops at the show.
The size of the netbooks that were brought to the fair ranges from 10.1 inches to 12 inches and those weigh between two and three pounds, while the average price is Tk 23,000 to Tk 40,000 each.
Besides netbooks, laptops are still on the top of visitors' list of choice -- many of them were planning to get one.
Apart from that, they were also looking for locally made voltage stabilisers, as these devices attracted many visitors mainly for its low price.
“We have received more than 10 spot orders for voltage stabilisers for using with refrigerators,” said Tapan Pal, marketing officer of Grameen Bitek Ltd.
Colors of Bangladesh, a local distributor of information technology (IT) 'kiosk'-- used as a complete information centre -- was displaying colourful booths designed mainly for government and corporate offices.
“We have started selling these from 2007, and already we have sold 25 units to different ministries, private universities, Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and airports,” said Bappy Rahman, assistant product development officer of Colors of Bangladesh.
The average cost for installing such kiosks starts from Tk 2 lakh, he said.
Generally, kiosk is a small shop or store, open at the front, where newspapers, drinks, etc. are sold.
The visitors at the show were also enthused about digital cameras, where low-priced ones were topping the sales.
Besides all these, Southeast Bank Ltd, a private commercial bank, came to the fair to create awareness about their 'consumer credit scheme', which provides loans for a wide range of consumer products including car, television, computer, kitchen utensils and camera.
However, many a participant in the fair expressed frustration over low sales, as a number of visitors came to the show only to get idea about prices of different products and discount that were on the offer. They were not buying then.
Khondoker Khaled Bin Ahmed, product management executive of Global Brand Ltd, a distributor of Asus brand, said they sold only 10 laptops on the opening day.
“This is frustrating. We sold almost double the number on the opening day at the laptop fair in January this year,” he said.
However, he was hopeful about getting expected sales on the two public holidays -- today and tomorrow.
Giasuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh Computer Samity said around 3,000 laptops were sold at the last year's fair, and they hope to sell more than 5,000 units this time.
Mobile phone operator Robi is the title sponsor of the exposition, while Acer, Asus, HP and Lenovo are the co-sponsors.
Around 45 tech-based service providers are showcasing their products, including computer accessories, cameras, USB (universal serial bus) devices, printers, laptops, netbooks, software, CDs and magazines, at the fair.
Bangladesh Computer Samity in association with the ICT Business Council of the commerce ministry has organised the show.
The fair will remain open for all from 10am to 8pm with an entry fee of Tk 20 per person.