The design and innovation award was already hosted by the TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) and iF for the seventh year running – 288 entries from nine countries participated and competed to receive one of the COMPUTEX d&i awards 2014. 74 product innovations had the judges convinced; five of them are also happy to take home a Gold Award.

The jury was made up of Sylvia Feichtinger, Nokia US/USA, Jan Fellstrom, Dayeh University/Taiwan, Terry Ko, Yahoo! Taiwan/Taiwan, Simon Loasby, Volkswagen Group China/China, Olivier Molody, Great Wall Motors/China and Manfred Wang, National Taiwan Normal University /Taiwan.

This year, the experts evaluated a total of 288 products from nine different countries – 74 were selected to receive the COMPUTEX d&i award 2014. The following five entries were the proud recipients of a COMPUTEX Gold Award.

They are X300A Wireless from GP Acoustics Ltd., UK；HTC Dot View from HTC, Taiwan；Philips Two-in-One Design from Royal Philips, Netherlands；Cylinder from Taer Innovation Co., Ltd., Taiwan；Level 10 M Hybrid Mouse from Thermaltake Technology Co., Ltd., Taiwan.

“The entries in the COMPUTEX d&i awards 2014 showed overall a great selection of innovative design solutions within all areas and categories. A lot of product entries could convince with an overall high level of design quality, outstanding features and cutting-edge craftsmanship.” Sylvia Feichtinger said.

“I came away with the feeling that those designs chosen deserved awards. I also felt confident that the chosen jury had a range of expertise that ensured a fair result for all products. As for the entries, there were some very interesting ideas, however I expected more originality and innovation.” Jan Fellstrom said.

Many designs were copies of existing products, which I see as lost opportunities as it takes almost as much work to create a copy. My first impression looking over the sea of entries was black/silver electronics, which reminded me of the dull beige computer equipment before the birth of the iMac. Time for a bit more color.” Jan Fellstrom said.

“Of all the entries, I once again witnessed many creative minds exploring all possibilities to push innovation and design to the next level; creating differentiation and functional advances to win in the market place.” Terry Ko said.

“A very diverse selection that challenged the judges!” Simon Loasby said.

“The number of entries was impressive and there was a lot of good design to judge. While it’s difficult to innovate in such a fast-moving and competitive industry, some entries have shown that there is still a place for original designs and technological innovation. Some entries made us smile; some led to lively discussion. We didn’t only reward nice styling, we looked for design innovation and added value for the user at a fair price.” Olivier Molody said.

“We can see that companies are striving to add a bit of innovativeness and achieve a slight breakthrough through the existing products, to add value to the products and make the products stand out in the market.” Manfred Wang said.