Interop New York  and the Mobile Business Expo  opened in New York this week, almost unnoticed against the background of financial turmoil. The crowds were sparse on Wednesday and the aisles remarkably open. If anyone needed another indication of how the world of tech conferences has changed in these tough economic times, a fashion convention took up a big chunk of exhibition space at the Javits Center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In the old days, tech shows spilled into every inch of available space.

However, Natalia Wodecki, PR manager for TechWeb, the sponsors of Interop, insisted that attendance would be higher this year, up an estimated 14 percent to around 8,000.Maybe, but it still looks sparse to me..

Computer shows in New York depend heavily on technologists from the financial sector and with Wall Street bleeding all over the place, no wonder that there was little of the excitement usually associated with technology events. Too many people were uncertain about their future -- or losing their jobs -- to browse the latest routers, phones and web services.

The low-key atmosphere didn’t stop companies from making product introductions. Lenovo had a busy booth at the center of the exhibit floor. The Chinese PC maker announced a move into servers in the U.S. market. Lenovo has been successful in the U.S. with the ThinkPad brand of laptops it bought from IBM several years ago and the ThinkCentre desktops. Aiming now at the small and medium-sized business market with its new line of servers, Lenovo has included a set of software tools to help companies without IT staffs set up and manage the servers, which the company believes will fit companies of up to 500 employees.

The two main product lines are server towers and racks powered by Intel Core 2 Duo or Xeon CPUs. They come with a full complement of hot-swappable components. Lenovo also introduced a series of new monitors, including a 24-inch wide, in a line it calls ThinkVision. The company plays up the “green” aspects of the monitor line, including energy-efficiency and increased use of recyclable materials.