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Intel cancels Taiwan forum due to economy

World's largest chipmaker calls off developer conference in Taiwan this year and plans to scale back the one in Beijing. Company says both will resume in 2010.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

Production isn't the only thing being scaled back at Intel because of the world economy. The world's largest chipmaker will cancel its developer conference in Taiwan this year and scale back the one in Beijing.

The Intel Developer Forum in Taiwan typically takes place in October, while China IDF is in April. The IDF in the United States in September will not be affected, Intel said Monday. The Beijing IDF will be shortened to a one-day event. It is typically two days.

Intel uses the IDF to launch many of its products and technologies.

"It's the economy," said David Dickstein, an Intel spokesman. "The reaction we've gotten from exhibitors and sponsors when we told them about the scale-back in Beijing and cancellation of Taiwan, actually was overwhelmingly positive. They're saying it helps with their bottom line."

Attendance will fall dramatically in Beijing. "Before we would bring more than 100 international press to the event. But now the event is really geared toward the local community. We're looking at under 1,000 attendees instead of 5,000 plus," he said. Dickstein said he is working on ways to bring Beijing IDF to the world. "We're looking at a virtual conference," he said.

Both forums are slated to resume again in 2010, he said. So, this is a one-time action.

This was reported earlier at DigiTimes.