Distribution company Axiz says although it is committed to distributing the HP brand of notebooks, its recent signing of an agreement to distribute the entire Acer range of laptop computers is essentially a complementary move.
According to Brian Clarke, Axiz`s director of sales and marketing, the move will in no way bring about conflict. The company always had a two-tier approach to product distribution and it fully understands HP is the first tier and Acer follows closely behind, he says.
He adds that one of the major factors that made Axiz sign the agreement is Acer`s full commitment to dealing exclusively through its channel partners.
Clarke says the partnership has no specific timeline, but is subject to certain performance requirements in terms of unit movements.
"Having both HP and Acer brands will also boost our efforts to gain more market share in the SMB and SOHO space," he says.
David Drummond, MD of Acer Africa, attributes the move to the fact that the Acer brand is rapidly gaining market share both in the EMEA and African regions.
"Although we are currently at number two in terms of notebooks and LCD panels, we see ourselves scooping the number one spot in the country by the end of 2005," he says.
However, Drummond adds that reaching this goal will not be an easy task, and Acer has to do more work on the brand both locally and internationally with specific focus on growing its SMB consumer base.
Acer says it grew its revenues by 85% last year in comparison to 2002 and its revenues for the first quarter of this year have gone up 101% compared to the corresponding period last year.
Both Axiz and Acer remain bullish about the prospects for notebooks and ICT products in general in the South African market.
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