Hello.
First of all, let me excuse myself for being in Infotech 2013 right now. I can’t stop blaming myself but I had nothing better (or worst to do) since nothing has been planned (not yet at least) for my day off today.
So, after dropping Dhaneesha to office today and after a quick tour in Shoprite, I headed to SVICC to kill some time in here. On reaching here at around 9hr30, i.e, 30 minutes before the official opening hours of the Infotech fancy fair, I fortunately met an old university friend with whom I had a long chat to catch up while being comfortably seated in the National Computer Board Cyber Caravane Bus.
I won’t be too long explaining in words how was the Infotech 2013 edition but in one word, I would say “Worst”.
This was confirmed by several persons I met in here. As usual, companies tried to expose their products and few of them had models to “enhance” their stands. One thing which strikes me is the absence of Emtel in the fancy fair. From what I heard, they are preparing something big, for their 25 years of existence.
Without losing any time, here are the pictures. Use the left and right arrows at the bottom to browse through the gallery :
Blogging live from the Food Court, SVICC
Use your time efficiently and stay away from Infotech unless you have extra time or days off, like me. Time for me to pack up!
Keep tuned for other articles!
Yashvinblogs 
The absence of Emtel was one of my first thoughts, too!
“Since my first visit to Infotech
a couple of years back, I have to admit that the whole event has gone
from hardly acceptable to bad to absolutely unnecessary. Seriously, Infotech 2013 is not about latest technology and trends available here on the island…”
http://jochen.kirstaetter.name/blog/community/infotech-2013.html
Same impressions… good to know that there are more.
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Did you visit Rawat’s stall? Tried the Lumia 1020. Want info about this Pureview camera.
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It is becoming worst each year and it has become of a more commercial thing rather than showig the new or future developments. Better stay at home and watch keynotes of product launches from major brands such as apple,google, microsoft as example which we will gain much more and also we are sure that we won’t be dissapointed as we would be waiting for something to release that interest us.
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waiting for more info on this topic if u have 😀 about the promotions,more pics and whats wrong about it,,, as usual hehe..
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To tell you the truth, I did not really bother to look at the promos. I only stopped at Orange and HTC’s stand to look for the HTC One and their price. As for others, it is the usual promos they offer all round the island in all of their shops. (Example, Galaxy, Orange shops, courts and blabla)
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Only one intelligent guy used the 5GHZ band.
http://www.lexpress.mu/article/infotech-le-ministere-des-tic-sexplique-sur-la-panne-dinternet-au-salon-0
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LOL. YOU clicked only few pictures this time…. :p i never attended infotech in my life.
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I have an important question…..From what I read in the press some months ago, all the stands were book in just a few minutes after they were advertised.Then why there were few traders as compared to previous years??
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Because they realise , the stands are not worth the price if they are exposing stuffs outdated 🙂
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It’s indeed a huge disappointment, I just saw a bunch of companies advertising their rather dated products and even Sharp selling calculators at their stand. This is unbelievable. Yeah tech show my ass.
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Casio?:P
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Sharp
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everything is overpriced or outdated at infotech 2013.
No ps4, no xbox one, no nexus 5 with android 4.4 kitkat, no latest nikon/canon cameras, the list goes on.
Better shops like one.o.one bring all these exciting stuff at excellent price.
Just check their catalog: pricelist.101-multimedia.com
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Looks like a self boasting statement but fair enough to approve the comment 🙂
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I did not plan to go this year after considering last year as a “worse” event.
infotech is much likely about marketing of companies with outdated products , i wished it was about new inventions, new products.
– Wished there was google glasses
-Nexus 5 as the main tech of android 4.4 even if its an ICT fair
-New motherboard, 100% gaming such as asus sabertooth or maximus formula
-Servers, web hosting which are 100 % reliable.
– A dropdown in the .mu domain name sale.
-Touch screen “screen” for people using desktop computers.
-Programmes about Java software creation, teaching people about basic HTML, Explaining people about blogging and wordpress.
-New ISP’s offering Fibre to the Home the fast speed ever and the work being done at least within 2 month of registration.
-Motherboard with new technologies such as water cooling system showing performance at high speed.
– Main companies such as google, asus, msi, microsoft showing technologies to their maximum compared to local resellers.
– in other words it should had completely been professionalism in the IT field.
But the fact remains, we are outdated, we will remain outdated.
Long live cyberisland, Long live Mauritius.
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Infotech? You really, really had to hate your precious life at that moment to burn fuel and your senses to visit that thing, eh?
No, it’s a good reminder to all the others to avert this black-hole at all costs, by all means. Let’s recap my main gripes about this non-event:
1 – Infotech means IT, right? So why so much paper everywhere? Brochures, posters, business cards, etc, etc… that’s so anti-IT! Did these organisers ever hear about QR codes??
2 – How does IT influence Dodolanders’ life in Infotech? Forget about Vertical World’s presence for a second (reminds me of a copy-paste of the building-climber on the Zoranz Tower some time ago), what did you see there which actually would influence your way of living? The virtual classroom is gone, replaced by a vacant bus – the attempt of creating a pseudo-cyber-esque atmosphere with the blueish lights is more actually a lamentable fail that harks to North-Korea-type hype… Did they think of attracting home automation experts there? What about getting programmers to explain the virtues of applying programming principles (top-down analysis) to the common lay-persons? What about local app builders on Android? Come on, most readers here have much more and more stimulating ideas than I! By the way, I heard that the new ID card promoters were present there – why bloody hell, why? Apart from their own reader, who can read the data? And most importantly, why should we be bothered about our own information on our own card, for god’s sake – do they have something to hide from us? And how is it going to influence OUR lives?
3 – They speak of promoting Cyber-Island? So, how come we can’t pay for basic stuff like utility bills online? Forget about fines, bus tickerts, cinema/concert tickets, all of it is desperately low-tech: get in queue! The only way of doing it without losing precious time queueing is by getting ripped with abusive banking fees for setting up standing orders for periodic payments. While I’m at it, since the government likes to boast about the “open economy”, why can’t we still sell things online and receive payment online directly into our account? I stand corrected if this has changed.
4 – The main ISP’s there sell internet packages, right? There are either pre-paid or post-paid packages, right? If you are not a post-paid buyer of online time getting ripped by abusive standing order bank charges, then you must have run into that crazy situation whereby you need to recharge your account, but can’t do so, unless you walk to an ATM or a ti-tabazi. Why the BEEP can’t we be allowed to recharge online, for BEEP’s sake?
5 – Innovation? At the time I read about MP3 players, they were unheard of at Infotech. Nowadays, MP3 players are completely outdated gadgets, and the same fate will befall all gadgets. Yet, you see the same thing getting repeated year on year, the same outdated gadgets being pushed forward as innovations. These were imported from abroad, just mere copy-pasting faded trends from lafranss-langglétérr is not. And should not be allowed in there. There are so many Mauritian ICT start-ups doing beautifully crazy stuff for top (and flop) companies who really deserve some recognition in there, not the perpetual C&C/Courts/Galaxy/Leal/Ishop gadget-dumping.
6 – Banks often boast about internet banking, right? Then, why are they absent, the whole 21 of them, from Infotech? Presumably because banking – taking, depositing, transferring money, and doing monetary transactions – is a bloodily primitive means of doing business, blimey! Real banking is based on some real, face-to-face interactions: else, imagine applying for basic documents (a creditor’s note, or a bank guarantee) or a simple loan online… The one that tried online loan applications had to hide it under the rug due to the impossibly tedious process that in the end backfired as it meant back to square one for the customer: being called in person with a load of paper stuff and two or more guarantors, and all the time-hassle… Yes, our local banking system is incredibly primitive by all standards.
OK, I stop.
Briefly said, Infotech is our “vitrine de la médiocrité” – great from outside, but once inside… a bit like our public toilets, so to speak.
Bravo Dodoland!
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