by Kenny Chee

THERE was no stopping the bargain hunters eager for a good buy at The IT Show which ended yesterday at Suntec Singapore.

Queues snaked out of the exhibiton halls as shoppers converged on the four-day fair and carted off bags of IT products.

The cash registers rang loud and clear with the message that Singaporeans are still willing to spend - they bought $58.5 million of computer peripherals and products, no doubt encouraged by the bargains available.

The fair's organiser, Eastern Directories, said that the top buys at this year's show were notebook PCs, digital cameras, computer-storage devices, printers and liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TV sets.

For electronics store Audio House, LCD TVs dominated its sales. Its marketing consultant, Ms Joanne Wee, told my paper that one of its 42-inch LCD TVs was going for $1,399 instead of the usual price of $2,799.

Computer superstore Challenger Technologies saw its notebooks, desktop PCs and storage devices topping the sales list.

Its spokesman said that some laptops at the fair were going for just over $700, compared to their usual retail price of between $800 and $900.

Storage devices were also around 10 to 20 per cent cheaper at the fair.

Many exhibitors agreed that consumers were waiting for the fair's promotions to get their gadgets.

"Prices are lower at such fairs," said Challenger Technologies' spokesman - which made it cheaper for consumers to buy products that had become "necessities", like laptops.

IT systems analyst P.K. Tan, 29, is one customer who made good use of the fair's promotions.

"I bought a $39 D-Link wireless router that's $10 cheaper than usual and it's a new product that I needed," he said.

kennyc@sph.com.sg

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