Having been given the nod by its parent company to market and distribute monitors and LCD Projectors throughout the sub-Saharan African region, SA Philips` monitors division reports record first quarter sales with shipments in March around the 10 000 unit level in South Africa. Steve O` Hagan, GM of Monitors, PC`s and add-on cards at SA Philips, says the sub-Saharan region, excluding South Africa, has potential sales of around 200 000 units. With the division`s Philips Kenyan monitor and PC distributor reporting sales of 1000 units per month, the results seem to support this prediction. Other countries that look set to face the Philips onslaught include Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Namibia, Botswana, Somalia and Indian Ocean Islands. O`Hagan believes the increase in demand has been encouraged, in part, by the increasing number of Africans discovering the benefits to be had from the World Wide Web. "In Africa there are around 23 000 registered Internet users and as this number increases we expect demand for our products to grow," he says. Figures reflect that sales of the ubiquitous 14-inch monitor have remained steady while the company cannot keep up with demand for its 17-inch products. "We have sold 300 percent more than we predicted. The Brilliance 107B and 107S ranges ship straight out of the warehouse as they arrive in the country," says O`Hagan He attributes the growing interest in larger monitors, particularly the 17- and 21-inch models, to the corporate move to adhere to the ergonomic needs of staff who often spend hours hunched over smaller, older units that could impact negatively on their eyesight. O`Hagan says that sales of Philips` LCD projectors are also on the increase with the division tracking 30 percent ahead of budget. "We have doubled unit orders to cope with the demand and are expecting to go 50 percent over budget this year." Initial sales projections for 1998 in South Africa were for 70 000 monitors but these have since been revised upwards to 100 000 units.
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