This is the final installment of the three-part story on the 2009 Hangzhou Electronic and Information Fair. In the previous two articles, I’ve given a few of my perspectives on the upcoming tidal wave of Chinese electronic design entering the arena, and some of this is going to make a real difference to all end-users in the following months.

Now for the wrap-up: here’s a little video showing some cool stuff that I saw at the 2009 Hangzhou Electronic and Information Fair…

(click the picture to see the video!)

So what can you do to make the most of this period of change and innovation? Well, I’m sure you’ve heard someone say something once or twice about the fact that there are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened, right? If you want to be the first one on that list, I suggest some of these handy little strategies, which I’ve neatly arranged into a TopTen list of points to consider in the new China wholesale electronics market:

• Forget everything you think you know about the PRC. For better or for worse, this place changes too darn fast… and if you come across some nuggets of wisdom that you decide to accept as truth and hold onto forever, you will be surprised – and most likely disappointed – with the outcome. Keep researching… and research some more after that.

• Made In China will start sounding a lot less funny in the future, as the world begins to see some really good products coming off the assembly lines. You’ll either be one of the guys enjoying the rewards of moving along with the enormous progress… or you’ll be stuck in a deep, dark hole of denial.

• Sleep less, do more. Benjamin Franklin said “there will be sleeping enough in the grave”… and he wasn’t even living in the Information Technology Age! I don’t recommend you run yourself ragged by not sleeping enough, but at least don’t watch TV anymore. You’ll find China’s long and sordid history to be stranger than fiction, and it will provide invaluable insight into what drives the country’s thought process today.

• Everything old is new again. You probably grew up with computers, VCR / DVD players, CD players, video games, digital watches, big color TV sets, etc… while those who were born in China before 1990 didn’t. You should remember that when dealing with your new partners, as they will have a much keener awareness of how excited the youth market gets over electronics. Look towards the entire Asian gaming industry if you aren’t sure what this means.

• … on the other hand, you shouldn’t be surprised to realize (after reading the point above) that the level of expectation in Asia is much higher for the performance and wow-factor of new electronic products, since most of the kids here grew up with the stuff we saw in lengthy (often awkward) development over the past three decades.

• Forget everything you know about consensus and majority vote. In China, decisions are made by the leadership, and that’s that. Speculation doesn’t always follow logic or trends, and part of what makes China such a great place for the risk-takers is the fact that it can present an opportunity at the drop of a hat… as long as you don’t mind navigating mine fields.

• Let sleeping dogs lie… because the best part of huge corporate entities in China is in their amazing inability to deal with progress or innovation at the street-level. You say the big manufacturers and distributors are unable to satisfy demand from a specialized niche market? You should probably do it, and you’ll probably do it better than they can.

• Everyone’s in search of Superman… the government bodies and administrations are always looking for somebody to come in and champion their cause, so it’s pretty easy for smaller companies to get the funding they need… if you’re willing to play the game. Nothing is for free, and you’ll have to adapt to the cheerleading and CPC-friendly hype if you hope to get your foot in this door. Might not be worth it, in my opinion… but it pays to watch the ones who are doing it, to get an idea about some hot new branding campaigns or industry buzzwords that will be useful to you.

• Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery… and one hard-and-fast rule in the China market is that your ideas will be ripped off in a matter of days. This makes the big companies cringe over IPR and legalities… but doesn’t faze the small ones who have a strategy in place. For some, there’s no better way to get a push in the right direction than by allowing your competition to copy you.

• Speaking the language is important, if you’d like to keep from getting burned. It’s no secret that businesses will act upon whatever advantages they can take to keep you in the dark. You can at least try to make it harder for them to pull a fast one on you in China, by learning some Mandarin or Cantonese. Of course, you’ll be faced with some local dialects as well, and that could mean extra time reciting phrases out loud to yourself during your daily commute, in the shower, or during the elevator ride up to the office. Yes, you’ll look like a freak to those who see you… but you’ll be glad you did it when the less-scrupulous Chinese business ‘friends’ are grinning with delight as they plot your demise right in front of you! You’ll be smiling right back, knowing that the joke’s not on you.

I know it’s a lot to think about… and the truth is that this is only the beginning… but one thing is certain for now: there will be a lot of new chances to expand your visibility in China, if you are willing to do the work. You can either get on this train, or step aside as the competition hops aboard… while they contact their business partners on those sexy new Chinese-made 3G mobiles with open-source software powering their hanzi (written Chinese) character-set recognition text messaging functions. They’ll most likely be downloading a movie at the same time, too.

Don’t know where to begin? Source other global electronic suppliers at these sites today!