VR has given Computex 2016 a new lease of life, but what about next year?

The average consumer may not really know much about Computex . It is, after all, more of a B2B show than a consumer-centric one like CES.  That said, as anyone closely following the tech space will be aware, Computex is the weather-gauge that determines the direction that computing in general and PCs in particular are headed. What we see at Computex now, we’ll see in the consumer market at least 6 months down the line. Most of the big-name PC manufacturers like Asus, BenQ, Gigabyte, MSI, etc. are all based out of Taiwan. Their factories, research and development wings and even their headquarters are mostly based in Taiwan. It was at Computex that we saw the push towards IoT and smart home devices, the start of the tablet revolution (everyone who was anyone was building a tablet) and even 3D Printers and POS systems. The last couple of years have been relatively dull, for someone who loves technology that is. In line with the state of the PC industry at the time, all we really saw were iterations on pre-existing PC and laptop designs and ever more smart watches. Nobody really knew what to do and it showed. Those who could afford to, threw everything and the kitchen sink at their consumers. Those who couldn’t just did their best to get by with what they had. Inside sources even surmised that Computex would die out very soon. This year however, the buzzword is VR (Virtual Reality) and it’s injected new life into Computex and the PC market. As usual, everyone who’s anyone is already working on getting their finger in the VR pie. To be fair, there’s really nothing else to get excited about at the moment. As far as Taiwan is concerned, VR is the best thing to have happened to the PC industry in a long time. It’s an exciting new platform that offers users an experience unlike anything before it. It’s also an expensive offering that demands powerful PCs and dedicated hardware and is giving computing the push needed to keep it relevant. For now at least. A lot of the hardware and platforms unveiled at COMPUTEX this year are about VR. Motherboards, GPUs, powerful PCs, headsets, portable VR-ready PCs, laptops with desktop-grade hardware, they’re all there. HTC, despite being based out of Taiwan, never really showed up at COMPUTEX before; they’ve got a whole booth this year and all they want to talk about is the HTC Vive . ASUS launched a VR headset of their own, something very much like Samsung’s Gear VR. ASUS’ offering does have leather straps though. HP and MSI have both announced their own version of a backpack PC for no other purpose than VR and everyone else, ASUS and Gigabyte included, are pushing out “VR Ready” PCs and laptops. Nvidia’s got a whole ballroom to itself and all they want to talk about are their 1080 and 1070 GPUs and their unquestionable ability to provide the best VR experience on PC. Did we mention that Qualcomm is also working on a VR-ready GPU? Computex 2016 is primarily about VR. What’s next year going to be like?