Computex 2020 Cancelled; Coming Back In 2021
by Ryan Smith on June 12, 2020 8:00 AM ESTAfter a protracted battle with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, this year’s Computex trade show has finally succumbed to the pathogen.
One of the world’s largest IT trade shows – and frequently a venue for major PC-related announcements – Computex 2020 was scheduled to take place last week. However due to the coronavirus and all of the health and travel restrictions born from it, back in March the show was delayed and rescheduled for late September. But as it turns out, even a 3 month delay won’t be quite enough to make the show work, and as a result event organizer TAITRA has given up on plans to host the trade show this year.
Calling the latest change in plans a “rescheduling” of Computex, the show has been officially moved to June 1st through the 5th of 2021. Which means that although the show overall has not been canceled and that there will be another Computex next year, for all practical purposes the 2020 show has been cancelled.
In the brief announcement, TAITRA cited the ongoing travel restrictions as being the primary reason for cancelling the 2020 show. Taiwan is still largely banning foreign nationals from entering the country, which if still in place in September, would pose an obvious issue to attending the trade show. At the same time, the original plan to reschedule the show to September was always a bit of a dicey proposition, as the delay put the show out of sync with annual product release cycles and fewer companies were planning to attend, leading to TAITRA scaling down the show accordingly.
Notably, this makes 2020 the first year that Computex has been cancelled entirely. Even in the SARS outbreak of 2003, the show was successfully moved to September. Which goes to show how much more serious and disruptive SARS-CoV-2 has turned out to be.
Source: TAITRA
36 Comments
View All Comments
sorten - Saturday, June 13, 2020 - link
they? who is your boogeyman, friend?Peskarik - Saturday, June 13, 2020 - link
same as everKamen Rider Blade - Friday, June 12, 2020 - link
<Arnold Schwarzenegger as 'The Terminator' saying "I'LL BE BACK!".gif>Peskarik - Saturday, June 13, 2020 - link
Computex is done.Carmen00 - Saturday, June 13, 2020 - link
I wonder what will happen to those major PC-related announcements. Vendors each holding individual virtual soirees? A few more press releases instead?(And what's with the weird conspiracy-theory comments on AnandTech over the last couple of days? Generally written by names I've never seen before, with what appears to be zero interest in technology or the actual article content. A real shame, since AnandTech has had one of the most useful comment sections on the internet.)
Dug - Sunday, June 14, 2020 - link
If they were smart, they could have done an online computex.I'm sure a lot of companies will be happy about not spending so much money on transportation, booths, lodging, etc, and instead just present products online.