This year’s Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealer’s Association of the Philippines (COMDDAP) seemed more compact, yet more packed than ever, no doubt due to the presence of none other than HardwareZone Philippines, plus the simple fact that there’s simply more products being displayed this year, from all of the usual suspects plus a couple of new entrees.

                                            As with last year's comddap, Canon had one of the biggest booths during the event.

Notable details during the event include rock-bottom pricing for some items, demonstrations of many breath-taking technologies such as projector-based whiteboards, huge printers fit for churning out billboard materials, projectors duking it out with one another, and freebies sponsored by some exhibitors, such as the HWZ magazine sale held right at our booth. Join us and the crew as we wander around this yearly offering of computer-related overload, ranging from the mundane to the overly unique.

                                             Projectors seem to be dominating during this COMDDAP - above is a unique example of this technology at work.

                                            The HWZ booth was swamped with people for the better part of the 3-day exhibit. Website & Events man Jon Concepcion handling the crowds above.

                                             Ok people, ease up a little, you'll all get your autographs in a bit. Sign up for our newsletter in the meantime!

                                             Our co-exhibitor Manli garnered a lot of interest as well.

                                             Manli motherboard and videocard installed onto our Antec Skeleton casing was one of the attractions at our booth.

                                             The Canon booth was quite difficult to avoid, such was its size. Pictured above is one of the hottest products displayed.

                                             The "Coke-bottle" shape of some of the Ixus models retain their popularity. Canon's camera lineup continues to grow...

                                             Most of Canon's digital camcorders were recently refreshed and introduced during the Canon ImageNation Celebrations.

                                             One of Canon's hard disk-based, high-definition video cameras.

                                            Canon representatives assist an interested shopper enquiring after their DSLR's features.

                                             Right beside the Canon booths sat Sanyo, on a roll after their recent launch event.

                                             Sanyo products are starting to become more visible in I.T. channels, centered around the Xacti line and Eneloop batteries.

                                             Sanyo also had an impressive-looking full-HD projector - unfortunately not part of the shootout because it had much better specs.

                                             Sanyo also participated in the event's projector shootout - one of around a dozen different models catching every attendees' eyes.

                                             One of Canon's LV series projectors.

                                             Epson has long had a large presence in the projection field. Peek at our "spotlight" on an Epson projector here.

                                              An Acer projector strutting its stuff at the "entry-level" section of the projector shootouts.

                                             While there's no name to indicate it, this projector can easily be identified by its design language - it's a BenQ and you can have a closer look of their products here.

                                            The projectors were lined up for easy comparison. Most of the on-line projectors were displaying google maps.

                                             Speaking of BenQ, they had their own booth displaying a wide array of products - projectors, monitors, cameras, and laptops.

                                             BenQ's short range projector.

                                             A number of special exhibitors were also there to liven up the event. Above are Grace Christian's young robotic experts and their creations.

                                              What's the use of hardware when you're not connected? PLDT also makes an appearance with their internet services.

                                            Ice Watches had their own comprehensive display.

                                             A closer look at their AOC products. AOC recently adopted the tagline "At Of Colors".

                                             Also at the Glee booth was Apacer's memory products.

                                             Dell, which only started local distribution this year, had a large presence in the form of its own booth,

                                             ...extensive sales displays,

                                             ...plus support from their distributor channels.

                                              A lot of big names were also present - starting with hard charging HTC.

                                             HTC product mock-ups.

                                             The typically yellow-hued Kodak had a colorful presence.

                                            Kodak digital camera - although not well known locally, the brand is making inroads into the local market.

                                             Panasonic was displaying a huge projector costing a cool three million pesos.

                                             What's a multi-million projector without some kind of incentive?

                                            Continuing the theme of super expensive products, this here HP DesignJet usually "retails" for roughly P2.5M -the COMDDAP special price being a low, lowP1.5M only! (seriously).

                                             The appropriately-named CrazyCool Technologies handles many enthusiast cooling peripherals from Arctic Cooling, OCZ, and the like.

                                             Fujitsu shows its muscle with some choice laptop samples.

                                              Regular laptops with competitive features and pricing levels were evident.

                                             The diminutive  Fujitsu Lifebook U2010 boasts a swivel screen and a smaller form-factor than most netbooks.

                                             Super Micro is an old hand at these events. Here they point out the ECC memory modules of their server offerings.

                                             Western Digital had one of the most frequented booths at the show - their chairs were very comfy.

                                             WD had their complete line-up on display in addition to the sofa-toting  "HD-Media Player".

                                             The COMDDAP venue was still an arena of competition - Seagate also had their complete line-up on display.

                                           The locally-marketed Neo notebooks made a big splash with their new designs.

                                           And of course, spicing up the whole affair were-what else, but Christmas Elves!

The venue might be smaller, but with these pictures as evidence, it’s obvious that’s there so many more things to catch the eye and to flatten the wallet during this year’s COMDDAP, and we can also see the trend towards interactivity displayed at this yearly event, especially with the online, side-by-side shootout of projectors. COMDDAP is reaching more and more people every year, and if this is any indication of the state of the Philippines’ PC industry, I’m very much looking forward to next year’s event!