A computer fair was held by Intel in Riga, capital of Latvia, on August 27 to 29, 1999. According to company's data, it was attended by approximately 14,500 visitors. The event took place in Stock Exchange building in the very center of the city. Among the participants of the fair there were eleven local PC vendors (BISS Ltd, Capital, Comline, ELVA-1, M.Shafro&Co, Pro Line, Elcor Comp. ElkovecRiga, Incom ltd., Fortech, and Baltic Data), two Russian software vendors (New Disk and PROMT), and A/S Parks LvNet, one of the major Internet providers in Baltic countries. Visitors of the fair could see the latest products of the PC industry and purchase computers with significant discounts. All PC buyers also got free Internet access (up to 64 hours) and special gifts from Intel. On top of that, the Internet hall, equipped with twelve Intel Pentium III-based computers, was available for the visitors throughout the fair.

PROMT, a Russian specialist in computer translation solutions, have already taken part in a number of similar Intel fairs, yet the Riga event really turned out to be, according to the company, "a discovery of a new country". Computer translation systems proved to be in great demand in Latvia, as one can judge from the results of direct sales during the fair. In three days, a few PROMT 98 Giant professional systems, a few dozens of Internet PROMT online translators and Magic Gooddy translators for home PCs were sold. Users were also highly interested in specialized dictionaries, which are widely used for translation of topical texts.

According to PROMT opinion, the market of high-tech software, such as translation systems, has reached its maturity in Latvia. It also worths mentioning that the level of software piracy in the country is far lower than in Russia, and users are more prone to buy licensed software.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

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