Durban-based PixelArt, a division of the Hirt & Carter Group, has acquired sole South African distributorship of the Hermstedt ISDN product line.
PixelArt integrations manager Hein Jonker says the development is a boon for local end-users wanting fast Internet access and file transfer solutions at an affordable price.
The deal, concluded last week, brings the range to SA for the first time.
German-based Hermstedt AG is a worldwide independent vendor of ISDN communications products, hardware and software for the Windows PC and Macintosh platforms.
Hermstedt offers products for the home user through to the high-end server solution market, with several internal PCI and external USB adapters in the range, bundled with hybrid software. Corporates in the creative, publishing, pre-press and printing industry make up the bulk of the target market.
Jonker says the new distributorship forms part of PixelArt`s strategy to move from a retail business selling to end-users and corporates, to a retailer and distributor offering service and backup countrywide.
PixelArt operates throughout SA, with some expansion into neighbouring countries, and distributes Apple Mac and related products through its e-commerce portal, www.applemaccentre.com.
Jonker says that while the Apple Mac market share has traditionally been fairly small in SA, it has grown to around 5% of the market in recent years, and is expected to show steady growth in future as service and supply issues are resolved.
He notes that in terms of the Hermstedt range in SA, there is the potential for a minimum of around 5 000 installations, with this number growing as Telkom makes ISDN more affordable to small and medium enterprises and home users.
He expects a local response similar to the one in the UK, where 60% to 70% of new installations are using Hermstedt.
"I`m already seeing a great response from customers, when they realise they can have faster transfers with more features, at a lower price."
The Hermstedt products include the Hermstedt Leonardo USB, a multi-functional ISDN communications solution for USB-equipped Macintosh and Windows PCs. It enables peer-to-peer file transfers for professional users. Previously, the Leonardo was a PCI card, but now there is also an external version that uses USB.
According to Jonker, the Hermstedt Leonardo USB adapters make ISDN communication easier, with simple USB connections, compression on the fly, resumable transfers and support for both analogue and digital communication. With no platform-specific hardware variants, switching operating systems is as easy as unplugging the device.
For rapid file transfer, Hermstedt`s Leonardo Express ships both Windows and Macintosh versions, making it compatible with 4Sight/WAMNet`s ISDN Manager, FTP and other ISDN protocols.
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