PEOPLE crowded into an electronics show yesterday in Suzhou, lining up for free gifts and discounted gadgets. Even though the world is facing its toughest financial crisis, the visitors to the fair seemed oblivious to this.

The economic meltdown will have relatively less influence on the IT industry and there are still opportunities in the sector even in the current situation, said exhibitors attending the Electronics Manufacturing Exposition (eMEX) in Suzhou.

A total of 557 exhibitors, including Samsung, NEC, Acer, BenQ and China Mobile, are taking part in the show. In the 44,000-square-meter expo center, the latest technologies in semiconductors, displays, personal computers and entertainment electronics are on show.

Globally speaking, Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp and other technology companies will lose sales as the crunch catches up with them, analysts said. Corporate spending on computers, software and communications equipment may be little changed or fall as much as five percent next year as the lending freeze spooks clients, said Jane Snorek, an analyst at First American Funds. It would be the first decline in IT industry since 2001 after the dot-com bubble burst.

"It (the economy) does influence the market but I have to say it's in a limited range. I can't imagine people not using computers or logging on to the Internet," said JT Wang, Acer's chairman, who is also the Taipei Computer Association's chairman.

During the show, Acer displayed its 8.9-inch netbook Aspire One, which helped the world's No. 3 PC maker to sell the most notebooks in September.

With a reasonable price - Aspire starts at 2,999 yuan (US$439) - and design, consumers still want computers even in a recession. Acer forecasts it will sell 15 million netbooks next year, double its previous expectations, Wang told Shanghai Daily.

Netbook, which features ultra-compact portability and is designed for light computing tasks such as e-mail, basic Web browsing and word processing, has stolen the spotlight at the show.

Players including Acer, ASUS and Samsung all displayed netbook models costing between 3,000 and 4,000 yuan, half the price of mainstream laptops.

Samsung will debut its netbook NC 10 in the Chinese mainland next month, with an "attractive price" at about 3,499 yuan, Samsung officials said.

Long lines appeared in front of BenQ's booth where discounted products were being sold, from portable hard disk drives and cameras to laptops.

Storage products like hard disk drives and RW drives are receiving a warm market response in the third quarter, BenQ said.

At Acer's booth, more than a dozen laptops were sold in a few hours.

On the LCD sector, the Kunshan-based InfoVision Optoelectronics (Kunshan) Co Ltd (IVO), aims to expand capacity even though the LCD panel price has dropped dramatically.

IVO has invested US$1.57 billion to expand its capacity from 35,000 units every month now to 110,000 units from the beginning of next year.

The company plans to invest US$3 billion next year to build a more advanced plant to make larger size panels for LCD televisions.

"Finally we have evolved from computer panel maker to TV panel maker after discovering the stronger demand for TV," Carolyn Tseng, IVO's communications manager said. IVO showed off its 47-inch LCD TV panel during the show.

For home entertainment, Samsung displayed its 70-inch high-definition LCD TV and Epson launched its family of projectors.

The price of projectors, starting from 6,000 yuan now compared with 10,000 yuan previously, is more affordable.

And the demand in the domestic market is still strong, said an Epson official.

In the cyber world, advertising players like Sina and Sohu are expected to suffer from the economic crisis.