Revisiting COMPUTEX, How Much Has Technology Grown?

[Taipei, Taiwan=X] May 20, 9:00 AM (local time), outside Nangang Exhibition Center Station, Taipei. From early morning the area was busy — visitors from all nations, buyers checking maps on smartphones, COMPUTEX 2025 logo banners swaying in the breeze. Asia's largest IT exhibition was reopening.

My last visit was 2010. Samsung was just intensifying its semiconductor market offensive, and I still remember the circuit diagram printout received at the exhibition — intricate chip diagrams on A4 paper made it feel like a rare experience. Fifteen years passed. COMPUTEX 2025 has grown remarkably: 34 countries, 1,400 exhibiting companies, now encompassing data centers, AI servers, robot systems, AR/VR, and smart city platforms beyond simple component displays.

Two exhibition halls, different faces: Hall 1 was packed with hardware-centric booths — CPU, GPU, motherboards, fans, routers, cases. For those less technically savvy, it felt like "similar devices lined up" or "an undeciphered landscape." "The evolution of technology's grammar of presentation is as important as the technology itself." Every booth featured "AI," but it mostly remained hardware-based AI — servers, GPUs, chipsets, cooling devices, computation modules — focusing on AI infrastructure rather than AI technology itself. The overuse of "AI" recalls how "metaverse" was once abused and lost market trust before becoming a trend.

Most disappointing was the absence of explanation — booths felt like "computer repair shops that lost their manuals." Products sat without explanation, staff were passive. Standout: Gigabyte created a complete small world with overwhelming entrance structures and 2nd-floor cube spaces where visitors could touch products, experience videos, and directly interact with brand messages. "Exhibition must speak without words — curation must be language readable and felt by everyone." Technology exhibitions must explain "what it means to people," not just list technology. The answer: "ability to make even those unfamiliar with technology understand technology."