PC Retail Issue 63, December 2008

PCRetail

Issue 63 December 2008

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THE TRADE MONTHLY FOR ALL COMPUTER RETAILERS AND IT SUPPLIERS

DECEMBER 2008 INCORPORATING

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A year of change PCRETAIL CONTACTS Editor Andrew Wooden andrew.wooden@intentmedia.co.uk

Deputy Editor Ben Furfie ben.furfie@intentmedia.co.uk

Staff Writer Matt Grainger matt.grainger@intentmedia.co.uk

Editorial Production Manager Helen French helen.french@intentmedia.co.uk

Managing Editor Lisa Foster lisa.foster@intentmedia.co.uk

Executive Advertising Manager Katie Rawlings katie.rawlings@intentmedia.co.uk

Advertising Executive Carly Bailey carly.bailey@intentmedia.co.uk

Production Executive Abigail Fanger abigail.fanger@intentmedia.co.uk

Designer Kelly Styles

IF 2008 WILL be remembered for nothing else, it will be change. As the global economic system finally fell into the recession it had been teetering on the brink of for agonising months, taking former stalwart banking institutions with it, the United States voted in its first black president and simultaneously made politics popular for millions of young people across the globe, and everyone but the local grocer starting seriously stocking lines of PCs. But in our PC channel cocoon, it could be said nothing very much has changed at all. It has always been tough for independent PC retailers in the UK. Before all this furore in the monetary landscape, small independent retailers were already struggling to make profit on hardware in the face of supermarket or multiple price cutting, increasingly relying on service to make money, and fretting about the declining numbers of shoppers on the High Street. Now the whole world has been steadily punched in the face with repeated months of ever-tightening credit, it has, in a sense, brought everyone in line with the independent dealers’ struggle.

There are even some that argue the economic strife will level the playing field,

since the whole situation will impact on multiples more violently than independents (see page 7). Those small retailers have become veterans of making the most out of difficult situations.

Times are tighter, but Christmas is Christmas, and people are still going to be spending cash. Its what we do – we’ve been hardwired by years of product marketing, and Johnny-come-lately financial warnings aren’t going to eradicate that in a hurry. Christmas still represents the most lucrative shopping period for any sector, and there will be plenty of sales to be had.

And in a wider sense, while the IT sector hasn’t proven immune to the climate, all throughout the year there have been examples of it holding its own significantly better than many other markets. As we approach 2009, and the manic, wide-eyed financial watchdogs continue to scream through our televisions that things are going to get even worse – with some presenters reduced to gently weeping on air at the full scale of the horror – we can take some comfort in the fact if retailers carry on with the methods that have seen them through so far, we should continue to fare better than most.

Times are tighter, but Christmas is Christmas, and people are still going to be spending cash.

It’s what we’ve been hardwired to do.

Andrew Wooden, Editor andrew.wooden@intentmedia.co.uk

kelly.styles@intentmedia.co.uk

Publisher Stuart Dinsey 01992 535646

EDITORIAL: 01992 535646 ADVERTISING: 01992 535647

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PCRetail ISSUE 63 DECEMBER 2008

Contents Reader Survey We ask both independent and chain reatilers their opinions on a range of issues affeting the channel

96

27

REGULARS

FACTS AND FIGURES

News

7

Appointments

20

Plug and Play

84

PCA

96

GfK Analysis

86

Keith Warburton, CEO, discusses the recent PCA conference and the products and services that help businesses

97

Games Releases 83

Mac Association

97

Robert Peckham, Executive Direct the Mac Technology Association talks all things Mac

ITACS/NASCR

98

Hardware Charts 87 Software Charts

91

MARKETPLACE

93

86

83

The two trade bodies discuss the ongoing WEEE dilemma and the responsibility of manufacturers to consumers

Notes from the Frontline 22 99

Richard Mills shares his knowledge from the Frontline of IT Support

Agony Uncle

99

Problems solved by our resident Agony Uncle Iain Shaw

Letters

24

This month Carphone Warehouse shennanigans and DGM gets readers talking

4 PCRetail December

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Graphics Chip Face Off Graphics processing unit vendors AMD/ATi and Nvidia go head to head with new releases as they battle for market share

R

40 N OU D

2

Past Masters

44

As the countdown to the PCR Awards 2009 gets into full swing, we talk to the winners of this year’s event about what it’s like to be crowned king of the channel

The Birth of an Industry 53 We talk to those in charge of keeping Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma breaking Colussus machine, about it;s impact on the current IT industry

Mystery Shopper

44 59

This month, our mystery shopper goes to Peterborough to shop for an Entertainment PC with a budget of around £600

59

Distributor Opening Times Your essential guide to when your distributor’s Christmas opening and closing times

63

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PCRetail December 5

LATEST NEWS

NEWS

STRAIGHT TO YOUR MOBILE BOOKMARK US IN YOUR PHONE:

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A cold Christmas?

Analysts and channel bosses divided over the impact of recession on Christmas sales Indies predicted to fare better than multiples this year DSGi anticipates tough festive period Right, top-bottom: Ingram Micro’s Bhavesh Patel; Brigantia’s Iain Shaw; and Anthony Norman of GfK

By Andrew Wooden

FOLLOWING one of dreariest economic years in living memory, industry watchdogs and channel figures are torn over whether presiding credit woes will overcome the usual buoyancy of the Christmas shopping period, or if the most lucrative buying period of the year will manage to break the current financial malaise.

Whilst not denying times would be harder than previous years, a number of industry analysts have predicted that even the now official recession won’t hugely impact the revenue drawn in through Christmas sales.

Jason Evans from Infinite Field Marketing Solutions claimed the general feeling

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from retail is that there’s still reason to be optimistic this yuletide. “Based on feedback from our field marketing teams, I can report that although retail is suffering from fluctuating sales, the general feeling is that it will still enjoy a prosperous Christmas period. There may be less people on the High Street at present; however, those who are making enquiries are more likely to spend – as long as the deal is right.”

Analyst GfK thinks that although the market will remain buoyant in terms of sales volume, it may be a little harder taking value. “There will be a significant amount of

stock, and there will be a large amount of promotions happening in the High Street, on which, given recent performances, there still is a demand for IT products, certainly by the loyal UK consumer base,” said Anthony Norman, business group director.

“However, though you might be selling more, the reveune you’ll be getting is a lot less than a year ago. That’s going to be something the retailers are going to have to work quite hard on. I don’t see it as a huge failure this Christmas – I think it will be quite buoyant in volume terms – but in value, that’s where it’s going to be more tricky.”

The opinion from distribution is similarly positive. Commercial director of distribution giant Ingram Micro Bhavesh Patel added: “From our perspective we have more product lines and segments listed in both High Street chains and retail independents than we have ever had before.”

However, others are less optimistic about the strength of consumer demand this Christmas. Brigantia founder Iain Shaw, whose organisation represents over 1,000 independents, said: “The traditional retail trade will be decimated this Christmas, with the multiples being faced with massive margin cuts as they

have to heavily discount stocks to shift them. What volume trade that does result will come very late as end-user customers wait to take advantage of final price reductions.

“Indies will fare better than the multiples over the next few months, given their focus on repairs and upgrades as end users attempt to extend the life of their existing hardware and software solutions. They will also benefit from access to heavily discounted stock that becomes available due to pressure on the multiples."

Confirming the pressure the chains are facing, a DSGi spokesperson told us: “It will be a tough Christmas, and we are planning accordingly.”

PCRetail December 7

NEWS

Synaxon UK: ‘It’s a new level of organisation’ Retailers show interest in new channel firm, but some quarters express concerns over use of PCA’s membership list PCA chief says resellers have ‘nothing to lose’ by being part of Synaxon

By Ben Furfie

SYNAXON UK is to bring some Christmas cheer to the channel, with the firm revealing detailed information about its launch plans for next year.

The company spoke to PC Retail exclusively this month about its launch plans and how it can benefit retailers and resellers. “This is a whole new level of organisation,” explained managing director Derek Jones. “I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of the group and how much it can help their business.”

“It was really good to see the extent of Synaxon in Germany; it really filled us with confidence that it knows what it is doing,” said Bear IT’s Anna Staley, who attended the group’s conference in Germany earlier this year. “The communications we’ve had recently have been very good; it all seems to be really positive stuff.”

Derek Jones

“I think the key thing is that Synaxon is structured differently to other organisations in the channel,” commented director of Drum Brae Solutions Mike Hoffman. “That’s not to say it’s not new, it’s just the first time it has been done so well.”

Like Staley and Hoffman, most of the retailers and resellers involved in Synaxon we spoke to were enthusiastic about what they described as the ‘fresh approach to the channel’s needs’, but there were some who said the company has already put its first foot wrong.

The main contention point appeared to be the way they were added to the firm’s reseller list without being asked. “I’m furious at how the PCA and Synaxon have gone about this,” commented Peter Booth of Peter A Booth.

Others expressed different concerns: “I don’t see any need for another buying group, especially one so closely associated with a trade body,” added SBS Computers’ owner Alan Camp. However, the PCA’s chief executive was quick to response to this criticism: “The more options resellers have, the better.

Synaxon seems to have quite a clear differentiator, EGIS. It seems to me that resellers have nothing to lose as being part of Synaxon – base level membership doesn’t cost them anything at all. There’s nothing to say that a reseller can’t belong to multiple groups.”

You can read about Synaxon UK’s launch plans on page 47.

News Bytes New headset for Vivanco Vivanco is stocking Bazoo’s latest Bluetooth headset.

The Avalon BT headset is suitable for listening to music or chatting by VoIP or by mobile phone. It is also equipped with multipoint technology, so that the headset can be linked to several devices at once.

8 PCRetail December

ASRock unveils X58 UK component vendor ASRock has released details of its X58 SuperComputer mainboard. It features support for an Intel Core i7 or any other 45nm processor, carries four PCI slots for graphics cards, and ASRock says that this will be its most affordable X58 board so far.

Channels Forum kicks off

New LCD screens from Mitsubishi

Etail to kick the crunch

The Canalys Channels Forum 2009 is now accepting delegates. On February 4th–5th, resellers, distributors and vendors will head to Barcelona for the event. Many companies have signed up – Apple and Hewlett Packard are supporting at Platinum level.

Mitsubishi Electric’s Visual Information Systems has launched two new 65-inch LCD public display monitors.

Complementing its existing range of LCD monitors, the new LDT651P and the LDT651L offer a full 1080p solution for both industrial and commercial use.

Research group IMRG expects internet retailing to buck the latest economic trends and anticipates a year-on-year growth for the final quarter of around 15 per cent as bargainseeking customers spend £13.16 billion online in the run up to Christmas.

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NEWS

Sponsors put their support behind PC Retail Awards Gem, Widget and Channel Advantage join growing list of firms supporting 2009 event

By Andrew Wooden

AS THE COUNTDOWN continues to the PC Retail Awards, Gem, Widget and Channel Advantage have come on board as sponsors of next year’s event.

Gem will sponsor the Frontline category of the evening, which includes the awards for High Street Independent, High Street Multiple, Online Retailer, Value Added Retailer and Best Technical Support.

Widget has become Gold Sponsor, and Channel Advantage will host the Drinks Reception on the night.

“Gem is delighted to show its continued support for the PC Retail Awards,” said the firm’s commercial and marketing director, Simon Lee. “2008 marked the birth of the

hugely successful event, making it an important date in the diary for recognising the achievements of the IT retail channel.

“Gem was honoured to receive the Grand Prix award

supplier to retail, and it’s great to see all aspects of the industry rewarded for their hard work. We’re looking forward to the night, and we’ll be encouraging our customers to enter.”

for our contribution to the industry and we are also pleased to announce our sponsorship of the Frontline awards this year.”

Mark Needham, chairman of Widget, added: “We’re a

This follows the news that chip giant AMD signed up as Platinum Sponsor of the awards, after sponsoring the pre-dinner drinks reception at the 2008 event. “After the success of the PC Retail Awards this year, we had no hesitation in offering our support of the 2009 event,” said AMD’s European channel marketing manager Richard Baker.

The PC Retail Awards will take place at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington on Thursday March 19th 2009.

Lobbying for the awards is in full swing, and nominations should be submitted to Lisa.Foster@intentmedia.co.uk.

Sponsorship and ticket enquiries should be addressed to Katie.

Rawlings@intentmedia.co.uk.

widget Platinum Sponsor

Drinks Reception Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Frontline Sponsor

SIGN UP FOR THE PC RETAIL NEWSFLASH SERVICE AT WWW.PCRETAILMAG.COM New mobile report Visiongain has found that more and more operators will re-evaluate their value chain to identify their core competencies and use managed services for profitable growth. Its report also looks into how hosting and managed services will converge as vendors shape their service strategies.

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46 per cent of Brits don’t recycle mobiles Fonebank asked over 1,000 people what UK consumers do with their old mobile handsets. The study shows that one in five respondents have at least three unused mobile phones at home – unaware that they could be sitting on a credit crunch-busting nest egg.

First USB mini-monitor

The Power of Cinema

New Sony frames

USB graphics productivity is now available in a fun, pintsize package. Powered by DisplayLink technology, the Nanovision MIMO seveninch USB connected and powered LCD mini monitors are a friendly and affordable way to add productivity to notebook and desktop computers.

CyberLink has launched PowerCinema 6, a software solution that enables users to turn a home PC into a highdefinition TV and multimedia centre. It offers support for a variety of AV formats, scheduled TV recording, and easy channel management. It lets users access HDTV on their PC.

The Sony DPF-D80 and DPFD100 are great Christmas gifts, and have eight-inch and 10.4-inch screens respectively. They are capable of storing up to 500 images, which are automatically rotated according to whether the frame has been positioned as portrait or landscape.

PCRetail December 9

NEWS

WoW title storms to top of UK PC games market Wrath of the Lich King becomes fastest selling PC game ever amid concerns over platform’s health

By Andrew Wooden

WORLD OF WARCRAFT add on Wrath of the Lich King has become the fastest selling PC game of all time, beating the record previously held by Championship Manager 4 since 2003.

As well as topping the PC games chart, the MMO title came number two in the over all games sales during its week of release – only missing the number one spot due to the simultaneous release of multiformat hero title Call of Duty: World at War, which has long been tipped to be one of the biggest selling titles of the year.

In a climate where PCs are often labelled as the lame duck

of the gaming industry, Paul Sams, chief operating officer at WoW’s publisher Blizzard said the success of the title was

largely down the intrinsic strength of the PC as a mulituse platform.

“I don’t buy or subscribe to

this ongoing discussion that the PC games are dying. WoW as an example has proven that to be incorrect. I think there’s always going to be a very big place for the PC – they are multi-use devices. Consoles are brilliant, but at this stage are not multi-use devices, or at least not compared to a PC. If you have a limited amount to spend people are going to go for PCs as there are so many other uses for it.”

However GFK-ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch argues that while the success is certainly one to be celebrated, PC gaming’s strength is too reliant on a small number of

top selling titles.

“It’s a great record for Warcraft – the Championship Manager record looked like it might never be broken. Does this mean the PC games market is a healthy one? Well, yes: so long as you’ve got something called World Of Warcraft or Football Manager or The Sims. Those games and a couple of others completely dominate the market, and others lose out. It’s very top heavy, the PC games market.

It’s dominated by the top five titles. Sales fall off pretty quickly after that. It’s very much skewed towards a few properties.”

Microsoft details enterprise cloud offering TWO months after first announcing its Software+ Service plans, Microsoft launched its Business+ offering in the US and promised a Spring 2009 date for UK rollout.

“The size of an organisation is no longer a barrier to deploying enterprise-level software,” explained Peter King, Microsoft’s UK office

server manager. “We’re launching with four products initially in the US – Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Office Communications Server Online and Live Meeting – with more arriving in time for our UK launch.

“These would traditionally have been products only enterprise customers would

have had access to, but thanks to cloud technology our partners can now offer them to two-man businesses, right the way to through to companies with hundreds of thousands of employees,” added Microsoft’s IW audience marketing manager Gill Le Fevre.

However, the key thing for both Le Fevre and King is that

choice is paramount.

“Scalability and choice are pivotal to Microsoft’s proposition and what set us apart from the competition,” said Le Fevre. “The key is that our partners can offer the solutions their customers need, in a method they want,” added King. “If they only want Exchange, that’s possible; if

they want everything, then again, that is an option. In the same way, if they want it entirely cloud based, we can offer that, while if they want Exchange on their in-house server and Sharepoint to be cloud-based, again, we can do that. It is designed to be flexible around their needs, not ours.” discoveronlineservices.com

amBXence creator

Swann teams up with Safe and Secure

IT market shrinking

News Bytes IpSwitch cashback Network management software developer, Ipswitch has announced a special cash back promotion for its WhatsUp Gold software suite.

Organisations purchasing the WhatsUp Gold edition will be eligible to receive up to £220 in Amex gift cheques.

10 PCRetail December

GoHello creates survival guide GoHello has launched its SME survival guide. The website will give regular advice to small and medium sized enterprises on how to beat the business blues in times of an economic downturn, and contains a wealth of key business knowledge.

amBX has launched the amBX Creator, a free software update that empowers and encourages PC users to create their very own amBX ambient effects – including coloured lighting, air movement, sound and rumble – to enhance their PC experience.

Swann has partnered with new online retailer the Safe and Secure Store, which was launched slightly earlier this year. The site will initially carry the DVR4-1100 CCTV system, the USB guardian and the advanced digital wireless baby monitor.

The recession is beginning to affect the IT market, though it has proved to be comparatively resilient to wider economic strife, according to figures from researcher IDC. The firm predicts three per cent growth across EMEA, which represents a 1.5-point drop from initial estimates.

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NEWS

Sony says that growing netbook market is ‘confusing’ The electronics giant has denied an imminent drive into the sector, claiming many consumers aren’t convinced by the devices James Bond franchise will continue to boost VAIO sales

By Andrew Wooden

SONY HAS denied claims that it is poised to make a move into the netbook arena, claiming that while it has an eye on the low-cost machines, market demand is still unclear.

“The NetPC market is still at an early stage,” Nicolas Barendson, head of the VAIO Business Unit at Sony UK, told PC Retail. “Even if significant quantities are currently sold, many people are still confused about the real added value of such products, since a netbook isn’t really a PC, and does a lot of things a phone can do. We are carefully looking at this market, but at this stage we have nothing to announce.”

The firm is currently giving a renewed push to its VAIO brand following a high profile collaboration with the James Bond franchise.

“From Casino Royale, the association of Bond and VAIO was very strong with our customers. With Quantum Of Solace, our objective was to build on the success of associating two powerful brands and provide a limited edition ‘Bond VAIO’ for the fans,” continued Barendson.

“The Bond PC is an example of our intention to adapt our products to the individual taste and expectations of the consumer. It is becoming clear that individuals have different

requirements for their PCs. Because of this, one of VAIO’s key directions for the last two years has been personalisation, which has been achieved with our ‘Colour’ strategy.

“In the future, people will use PCs in an increasingly varied way, using different devices in different places.

VAIO will remain one of the leading brands in the UK market. We will continue to lead in terms of design, technology and reliability – for personal and business use, for in-home or out of home usage.

“Sony VAIO will also play an important role in the digital home area, where the market is still emerging.”

Nicolas Barendson, head of the VAIO Business Unit at Sony UK

Historic site looks to UK IT industry for investment THE BLETCHLEY PARK TRUST – the organisation tasked with maintaining the world’s first computer – is looking for investment from UK technology firms to help keep the machine and its site functional and open to the public.

The Trust has already attracted some cash donations from computing giants such as

IBM, but it claims more will be needed in order to preserve the Colossus machine, which is largely recognised to be the world’s first computer and was responsible for cracking the Enigma code during World War Two. “The aim of the Trust isXxx now to turn Bletchley Park into a world-class heritage and educational centre to reflect

the significance of the technological advances made here and the impact they had on the outcome of World War Two and the Twentieth Century,” Simon Greenish, director of Bletchley Park Trust, told PC Retail. “Any assistance given in achieving this aim by modern PC and technology firms would be tremendous.

“We would be delighted to see UK technology firms getting involved in driving awareness and upkeep of Bletchley Park. IBM and PGP have demonstrated their support by making a £50,000 donation to The National Museum of Computing which, although a different organisation to the Bletchley Park Trust, is housed here and

is all part of our visitor experience.

“However, there is great scope and opportunity for other firms to develop partnerships with Bletchley Park and we believe there are huge possibilities for some prestigious brand association initiatives.”

For that match-funding to come from a UK technology firm would be marvellously fitting.”

Sanctuary for any device

Misco podcast keeps customers in tune

Hackers target Media Player

VIP supplier rebrands graphics cards

New Way Trading has launched the Sanctuary, a one-stop charging device hidden inside a smart desk or personal organiser. It claims its universal charger is compatible with every portable gadget in existence, including MP3 players and phones.

Misco has launched a new monthly podcast to give site visitors the on-demand option of regular technology updates and product news. This will encourage more informed buying decisions and help customers to keep up with advances in technology.

Kaspersky Lab announced that a malicious program that exploits a vulnerability in Windows Media Player was the most prolific piece of malware during October.

The Trojan program (TrojanDownloader.WMA.Wimad.n) downloads other potentially harmful programs to PCs.

Distributor VIP today announced Palit’s decision to rebrand its extensive range of XpertVision graphics cards to the world renowned Palit brand. Palit are officially approved manufacturers of both Nvidia and ATI products.

News Bytes FPB aims to defer VAT The Forum of Private Business (FPB) is putting forward an alternative to the Conservative’s proposal for a six-month VAT ‘holiday’.

The FPB believes that more UK businesses should be eligible to join the Cash Accounting Scheme and defer paying VAT until they are paid themselves.

12 PCRetail December

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NEWS

Does Carphone Warehouse move spell the end of consumer Linux?

Retailer offers to replace Linux OS to Windows XP for free after customer complaints and confusion Advocates defend Open Source operating systems claiming support is key to selling them

By Ben Furfie

CARPHONE WAREHOUSE has offered to change the operating system on its popular Webbook, after it experienced substantial levels of customer confusion with the Linux-based version of the device, the retailer has confirmed to PC Retail.

Reports that the retailer was recalling its Linux-based devices were dismissed by a spokeswoman for the company, who said that the chain wasn’t forcing customers to come in and change Operating System.

However, far more damaging is the precedent that the move may cause if other retailers choose to take the same

direction. When asked if Carphone Warehouse would ever stock Linux laptops again, the spokewoman said: “ I can’t confirm that we will never stock Linux laptops again, but for the time being we don’t carry any Linux-based netbooks.”

Interactive Idea’s Red Hat product manager Walli Datoo believes that the move isn’t a sign that Linux is doomed in the retail environment; just that retail hasn’t approached it well. “Carphone Warehouse was only bundling the laptops to sell its broadband contracts.

The key behind the successful Linux rollout is support.

However, he accepts that another issue facing Linux distros and vendors is the familiarity of Windows: “Linux is just emerging in the consumer space. In the tech world, there is a ‘path dependence’ mentality towards Windows. To change that Interactive Ideas’ Walli Datoo mindset will take time.” (above) and Brett Savidge (below) And time is what it may take, with Datoo suggesting children may be key to breaking the cycle: “It is far easier to teach Linux to fresh minds, such as children, and first time computer buyers who are attracted by the price.

Carphone Warehouse targeted

the 3G broadband user – someone who is considerably ‘path dependent’ on Windows and is probably unwilling to migrate at this time.”

“I think the key thing to bear in mind is that only 20 per cent of consumers are asking for Windows instead of Linux, and only to change the OS,” added Interactive Idea’s sales director Brett Savidge. “It is not a problem with Linux, it’s just that the consumer doesn’t understand change and is frightened. Also remember, 80 per cent of people haven’t asked for their operating system to be changed.”

PCA hails ‘outstanding’ conference Bell Micro and Akenhurst Consultants are amongst the speakers at annual trade event THE PCA has claimed its October event was an ‘outstanding success’, and promises that the next event in February is set to be even bigger.

The PCA’s annual conference saw over 14 speakers give advice to

members of the trade body and 11 companies showed off services and products that can help retailers and resellers not just survive the year ahead, but thrive.

Amongst the speakers were Bell Micro’s director of credit

services – Eddie Pacey, and Alastair Dryburgh of Akenhurst Consultants, who both gave advice on general business management to attendees.

“Delegates found some of the speakers really inspiring and Alastair and Eddie were both

outstanding ,” commented the chief executive of the PCA, Keith Warburton. “All of the delegates gave us really positive feedback and we’re now in the process of signing up several new vendor members as a result of the event.”

Firms also exhibiting at the event included First Recovery, Ghost Software and IDSbox.

“We’re now planning our next conference in February, with Intel already saying that it wants to speak at the event,” added Warburton.

News Bytes Apple sued for cracks Apple has been dealt another lawsuit over its iPhone, this time concerning a problem with hairline cracks on the device. The suit, filed by a New York district court, asserts that Apple is not doing enough to address the problem.

14 PCRetail December

Alienware lands Specialist PC vendor Alienware has launched two new computers incorporating Intel’s new Core i7 processors, which give the Area 51 X-58 and ALX X-58 a performance increase of 20 per cent over previous platforms, improving loading times and system communication.

Ubuntu to power netbooks

HP reviews media account

Linux platform Ubuntu is to be introduced to the netbook sector thanks to a deal between its developers and chip firm ARM. This is a debut for both companies: Ubuntu has primarily been used on PCs, and ARM’s core business has been in mobile phone chip design.

Hardware giant HP is to review the media accounts for two of its business groups.

ZenithOptimedia, which has handled HP’s global media account since 2004, will be reapplying for the contract.

This follows reports that HP is reviewing all of its PR and digital accounts.

BT to axe 10,000 jobs UK phone giant BT saw its share price boosted by 11 per cent after it announced intentions to cut 10,000 jobs and posted net profit growth of 18 per cent. The employment reductions will be completed by March 2009 and form part of the company’s continued strategy to reduce costs.

www.pcretailmag.com

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NEWS

Logitech: “We’re not just keyboards and mice” New UK and Ireland regional director pushes for awareness of a broader range of products

By Matt Grainger

LOGITECH’S new regional director for the UK and Ireland, Yehia Oweiss, is launching an awareness campaign for the firm’s new broader range of products, in an attempt to change the perception that the firm only deals in peripherals.

“People know us for keyboards and mice,” he told PC Retail. “To be honest, when I joined the company earlier this year I had the same preconception, but I soon saw the huge range of products and services that Logitech can offer.”

Logitech is still a market leader in the peripherals segment, which remains a core part of its business, having sold

nearly a billion mice. However, the company is looking to develop an array of other product lines to improve diversity and add potential service margins for retailers.

An example of this is the Harmony universal remote control. This device offers a personalised solution for owners of multiple pieces of equipment. Ranging from £50 to £200, the higher-end colour touchscreen version provides a potential install service opportunity for complex home set-ups.

Logitech is also looking to stimulate the market and has launched a number of initiatives to this end. The

company is offering a two-forone deal on European flights to purchasers of its high-end webcams as part of its ‘Be There’ campaign, which highlights the benefits of video conferencing with family members abroad.

The firm is also making the most of its product placement in the recent Dark Knight movie, where the hero was shown using a Logitech keyboard. The film will be available on DVD from December 8th and Logitech flyers will be in 1.8 million DVD cases, offering a free-toenter competition as well as a range of merchandised peripherals.

Logitech regional director Yehia Oweiss

Orange boosts its laptop offensive NETWORK PROVIDER Orange aims to increase its share of the laptop market this Christmas as it expands its line-up with new products designed to make accessing the internet easier.

The firm recently launched a new

contract offering the Eee PC 901 with embedded 3G connectivity to customers for £25 a month. It is this battle plan of driving low-cost internet access from anywhere to a wide array of customers that Orange plans to boost its presence with.

“It is Orange’s aim to be at the forefront of serving today's

21st century customers, who are looking to improve connectivity at home and work and require high-speed internet access when they want it,” a spokesperson told PC Retail.

“Orange is committed to making this a reality and has created a connected laptop product line to help meet this need. Following the

popularity of our initial offering, we have upgraded our consumer offer to incorporate embedded connectivity. This offer is only available through Orange shops, via Orange telesales and the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk/shop, and we believe this device will be really popular this Christmas.”

SIGN UP FOR THE PC RETAIL NEWSFLASH SERVICE AT WWW.PCRETAILMAG.COM Record turnout for WoW launch

Shareholders delay BT network

Microsoft snaps up Kangaroo boss

Parallels 4.0 to grow Apple

eBay unveils Xmas ad campaign

Over 2,500 gamers turned out to celebrate the launch of what is hotly anticipated to be one of the biggest games of the year: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The game is the second expansion pack for the MMORPG, which has 11 million subscribers worldwide.

BT’s CEO Ian Livingstone confirmed that a number of company shareholders have advised him to abandon a £1.5 billion plan to bring fibre-optic broadband to ten million UK households.

The shareholders feel that the firm should retain its cash reserves.

Ashley Highfield, boss of online video firm Project Kangaroo, has joined Microsoft as UK managing director of its online and consumer division. He helped launch the BBC iPlayer before joining Project Kangaroo, which will provide archived programmes to internet users.

Virtualisation specialist Parallels has unveiled the fourth version of its software that allows Windows to be run on an Apple Mac. The move has been made following encouragement from Apple, which is interested growing its presence in the business and corporate sector.

eBay is to launch a new £1.2 million advertising drive on Friday that promotes the firm as the low-cost destination for shoppers. The advertising campaign, entitled ‘Guess What,’ has been created by Albion and will extend to national print press, billboards and direct mail.

16 PCRetail December

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NEWS

CONSUMER PRESS This month PC Retail looks at Custom PC and Computer Buyer...

BETT marks its twenty-fifth anniversary Leading educational technology event looks set to continue its pioneering showcase role THE ANNUAL British Education and Training Technology show will be celebrating its 25th anniversary at the next show.

The show, which will run from the 14th to the 17th of January next year.

Will continue its tradition of highlighting key development areas in educational technology and addressing how these can be best incorporated in to the national curriculum and teaching methods.

The upcoming show will have over 600 participants, both old and new and it will contain the innovative feature areas that the event is known for.

“BETT is a great opportunity for everyone in the business to keep up to date,” commented Keith Clifford, marketing manager, group sector at Emap Connect, the company that organises BETT. “This is the world’s largest exhibition of its kind and as result we host all the key players who often use the event as a launch platform for their products, both hardware and software. It’s also a good opportunity for retailers to network with vendors and distributors on the supply side of the business.”

www.pcretailmag.com

Hot topics for 2009 include personalised learning, management and leadership, the modernisation of schools under the Government’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ (BSF) programme, and enriching the curriculum and assessment, covering the 1419 reforms and new curriculum frameworks.

The ‘New Technologies Zone’ looks set to return, showcasing the latest and most innovative new ICT resources available, while a new addition to the show is the ‘Learning Elsewhere’ section that focuses on mobile, remote and distance learning

to extend the educational experience beyond the classroom.

A key feature at the event is likely to be the ‘Future Schools’ zone, which has been developed in association with Partnership for Schools, the government agency that manages BSF. This programme has become integral to BETT in recent years and the showcase aims to provide visitors with in-depth information on the issues, possibilities and opportunities around the BSF initiative.

The show will contain a wide array of specialist zones, touching on areas such as special needs and educational

policy as well as the return of over 100 hugely popular seminars and workshops featuring a variety of topics.

“We hope to continue to improve in 2009,” said Clifford. “We’ve been very successful year on year for the last 25 years. Even during times when the market has been difficult, BETT has continued to do well as there is great value in the experience for anyone, from teachers who want to keep up with the latest developments through to suppliers that want to develop their markets.”

The BETT show is free to attend and registration is now live on www.bettshow.com.

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£500 laptops Best Buy: Sony Vaio VGNNS10J/S Good Buy: Packard Bell EasyNote BG45-U300 Top Value: Toshiba Satellite L350-14F Inkjet all-in-ones Best Buy: Canon Pixma MP630 Top Value: Canon Pixma MP540 Backup Software Best Buy: Acronis True Image 2009 Good Buy: Bullguard Backup 8.0 Top Value: Paragon Drive Backup 9 Personal

PCRetail December 19

APPOINTMENTS

CONSUMER PRESS

Lilley joins Ingram

This month, PC Retail looks at PC Pro and Computer Shopper...

Distributor gets new senior vice president and CFO Jo-Anne Foreman is made MD of Widget David Saab becomes Sweex UK and Ireland manager

Do it all PCs Labs Winner: Chillblast Fusion Sidewinder Recommeded: Apple iMac Value TFTs Labs Winner: Liyama ProLite E1908WSV Recommended: Hyundai H94W External Hard Disks Labs Winner: Maxtor OneTouch 4Plus Recommended: Western Digital My Book Home Edition Recommended:Western Digital My Passport Elite Best Value: Plextor Portable Hard Disk

Laptop Price Test Best Buy: Sony Vaio VGN-NS10J Budget Buy: Toshiba Satellite L350-14F MP3 Players Best Buy: Philips GoGear 8GB SA5285/02 Budget Buy: Sandisk Sansa Clip 4GB Photo Printing Services Best Buy: Snapfish Digital SLRs Best Buy: Canon EOS 1000D and 1855mmIS lens Budget Buy: Alpha DSLR-A200k

20 PCRetail December

INGRAM MICRO EMEA: Paul Lilley has been made senior vice president and chief financial officer, reporting to Jay Forbes, president at the division.

In his new role Lilley will be responsible for Ingram Micro EMEA finance, credit and treasury functions, and, as a member of the senior leadership team, will have a say in the strategic direction of the firm.

“We are very fortunate to have attracted someone of Paul’s knowledge and track record,” said Forbes. “We welcome him to the Ingram Micro team and look forward to the talents and experience he will bring as we continue to build our business and strengthen our financial performance.”

Lilley added: “I’m pleased to have joined the global leader in the technology distribution sector. These are exciting and challenging times, and Ingram Micro is well positioned to drive value and growth in its chosen markets.”

Paul Lilley

Jo-Anne Foreman

David Saab

REALTIME: The distributor has promoted Richard Marsden to the role of sales director, as it launches a campaign to step up its presence in the High Street.

“I’ve been with the firm for ten years now, all the way from when it was a family-owned operation so it’s great to be recognised in this way,” said Marsden of his promotion.

SWEEX: David Saab has been appointed the vendor’s manager for UK and Ireland, after recently joining the firm as new business development manager in September. He replaces Chris Chalder, who is leaving the firm after many years.

Saab started out in the industry by launching QDI (now Lenovo) into the UK, and went on to various other firms, including PNY and Sitecom.

“David has strengthened our position in the UK retail market since his appointment in September and is the natural successor to Chris Chalder,” said CEO of Sweex, Hans Hello. “I am delighted with his appointment and look forward to his experience and enthusiasm continuing to influence our success.”

WIDGET: Jo-Anne Foreman has been made managing director of the UK distributor.

She replaces Mark Needham, founder of the firm, who now takes on the role of executive chairman.

Foreman joined Widget in a management consultancy role in January 2008. Previously she was e-commerce and distribution sales manager for TomTom UK, and has experience in channel management at Canon UK and Canon Europe.

“I believe that Jo’s organisation and management skills will develop Widget into an ever more effective distributor over the next few years,” said Needham.

“2009 will be an exciting year for the company.”

KASPERSKY: The security firm has taken on Malcolm Tuck as managing director of the company’s UK and Ireland operations.

“It is time to take Kaspersky Lab to the next level in the UK security market,” said Tuck. “We have a portfolio of innovative, proven and reliable products and services that home users and businesses are demanding.

“The launch of our multi awardwinning 2009 home user technology earlier this year has generated great momentum in consumer sales; meanwhile we are driving forward with an active programme of expansion to grow Kaspersky Lab’s market share in the UK SMB and enterprise markets.”

The firm has also taken on Keith Maskell as vice president of corporate business and Roger Wilson as vice president of marketing.

www.pcretailmag.com

OPINION: TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Notes from the

frontline

Richard D. Mills RDM Computers Limited, Suite 18, Newlands Science Park, Inglemire Lane, Hull, HU6 7TQ Tel: 01482 875666 Web: www.rdmcomputers.co.uk

Richard Mills runs a local computer support company in Hull. He is a regular technology columnist for his local newspaper and has fronted a long-running phone-in on BBC Radio. Each month, he shares his experiences from the technology support frontline with the readers of PC Retail...

Some people appear to be getting their PCs repaired by a guy down the pub who installs XP Pro over XP at the first sign of trouble... had experienced a nasty virus problem and a ‘bloke at work’ had taken the laptop away and said the best solution was to put in a new hard drive, which he duly did. But following more problems as the result of a bad installation and no drivers, the customer bought it to us. When we suggested he might go back to the other person for some redress, his response was that he had already tried that and been advised to install yet another hard drive! What a wheeze that is. Can you imagine, every bad case of virus/spyware you get in, you just tell the customer they need a new drive and OS reinstall – nice!

SOMETIMES it is a challenge to fill these column inches with content perceived to be relevant to all the readers out there in IT Land. Are there readers that never see the dusty innards of a PC; that have no interest in such mundane inner workings and have someone else to do that sort of thing for them? Maybe, but then there is another well known publication that serves that market I believe. The focus of this column has always been the frontline, the cutting edge, the gritty seam of reality, where the great unwashed are using and abusing their machines on a daily basis and need someone there to look after them.

Many users are quite unaware that their software is illegal. They perhaps bought the PC from a dubious trader, undercutting the rest of the market by including both (pirated) XP Pro and Office 2000

22 PCRetail December

Pro in the price. Or maybe had their PC repaired by someone – a bloke down the pub perhaps – who specialises in installing XP Pro over the top of the customers licensed software at the first hint of trouble. We have one such cowboy in our area.

Whatever is wrong with the machine he seems to just whip out his cracked copy of XP Pro and bang it on, omitting to tell the customer that he has just wiped all their data in the process. This is, and always has been, a huge issue for us all and until Microsoft and other software publishers crackdown completely on those who show scant regard for intellectual property rights, it is not going to go away.

WE HAD an interesting case recently of a laptop that had come in to us in need of sorting. It transpired that the customer

TALKING of laptops in a real state, we had a classic recently. The customer said on the phone that this particular model had been really badly abused by the children and it had recently stopped working. When he brought it in we were amazed to find that it had no screen!

Apparently that got broken off, so they were using it plugged into a monitor! He was willing to pay to get it working again so we duly did that, he went away happy and took it home and plugged it back into the monitor for some further misuse, no doubt!

CUSTOMERS are still experiencing problems with Windows updates, mainly SP3 for Windows XP and SP1 for Windows Vista. In the case of Vista it appears that an incompatibility with certain – mainly older – AMD processors is causing the machine to fall over.

Although, that said, we have one quite new PC on the bench and whatever a Vista update goes on, it black screens!

BEST WISHES to everyone for Christmas and of course the coming year. Who knows what we will be talking about when the PC Retail Awards come round again in March next year!

www.pcretailmag.com

LATEST NEWS

LETTERS

STRAIGHT TO YOUR MOBILE

BOOKMARK US: mobile.pcretailmag.com

PCretailmag.com – join the debate This month, readers wonder whether Linux will ever truly be able to reach the mass market, argue over whether Norway is right to challenge Apple about its use of DRM on the tracks it sells, and suggest big companies can do a lot more to keep products selling...

Acer remains bullish about the future “My advice to these big companies – like Acer – is if you really want the big bucks, don’t stop with commercials.

Don’t make something and send it out to just hope it sells on its own.

“Get the employees into your products! Tell employers, where your products aren’t selling as well as they should, that they can open one of each of your products, set them up, and have their employees try them out. Get them enthused for your products, then accept claim-returns for those laptops to be refurbished, or let the companies sell those laptops and get credit for the $20 or $30 of lost profit (per store).

Carphone recalls Linux laptops “Sounds very much like a gap between what was expected and what was delivered. Just as easily attributed to the expectation built as any reflection on the product delivered. Given some of the successes elsewhere when the former is done right, I’d hardly blame the latter.”

Gary Blowhard “Simple answer here. People took their cheap or free notebooks, and then when they got them home and tried to download Windows apps for them, found that they couldn’t, and weren’t clever enough to find/install the Linux versions or equivalents.”

Rob “But that’s a fundamental issue, if they are returning them because they can’t find the software. It means that Linux is unlikely to ever break Windows’ stranglehold.”

Matt Apple DRM is illegal “It’s the recording companies that insist on DRM being implemented on iTunes downloads, not Apple. Apple would love to sell iTunes downloads free from DRM. “Norway’s Market Council should be going after the recording industry instead of wasting public money trying

24 PCRetail December

“Even small companies will pay more for good advertising, and the person taking the Aspire One out of the case is the last person you want saying to the customer: ‘You know, that Toshiba over there is only $50 more and it comes with a case and mouse,’ even if it’s the same thing with better video hardware that their email didn’t need and a CD drive they could’ve gotten used to not having, since they probably already have two USB Flash drives they can’t live without.”

MegamanXGold

to force Apple into doing something it would like to do but can’t because of rules put in place by the music industry.”

Chris W “So, Norway doesn’t play well with others. Time for Apple to leave that country. As costs go, leaving isn’t a high one. The bottom line is Apple still adheres to the DRM policy because of its contracts with the music industry corporations. The Norwegian law provides no relief for preventing piracy, and therefore is hypocritical in its enforcement. It’s a no-win situation.

This law is not ‘progressive’, just stupid.”

BayouMan “Norway’s stand is not rational. There is no way that Apple can satisfy its interpretation of the law. Therefore, if Apple decides to stay in Norway, it should charge a very high ‘per song’ fee to cover the DRM requirements, which it really has no control over, then tag the songs such that they can be tracked back to the Norwegian user for future music industry legal action should the downloaded music show up on more than one device. That would meet the ridiculous Norway Way and piss off every user in the country. Perhaps they would then have a little talk with the idiots in their government.”

Swampuppy

www.pcretailmag.com

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RETAIL SURVEY

Retail Survey

2008 This is the popular vote on who the best company working in the channel is, what the best selling product is, and what you think the future holds for the trade. www.pcretailmag.com

PC Retail, in association with Infinite Field Marketing Solutions, presents the definitive guide to the views and opinions of both multiple and independent retailers working in the UK channel over the past 12 months...

Whichever way you look at it, 2008 was an eventful year. While we in the media like to think we provide a valuable source of information and statistics to help you out in your daily battle on the frontline of the industry, it’s vital that we get the feedback from you on your experiences, worries, thoughts and hopes for the channel. After all, you’re the guys out there selling the products that our whole industry is built on.

To that end, PC Retail, together with Infinite,

brings you the Retail Survey 2008, an insight into what both the multiple and the independent retailer thinks about the current state of the channel. This is the popular vote on who the best company working in the channel is, what is the single biggest threat to retail is, what the best selling product is, and what you think the future holds for our trade.

And if you’re a retailer and you disagree with the verdict – be sure to let us know.

PCRetail December 27

RETAIL SURVEY

How has business been this year?

Retailer

Better than last year

Do you feel confident about your business in 2008?

Retailer

Yes

No

Independents

8

21

8

37

Independents

28

6

3

Multiples

22

51

55

128

Multiples

81

30

17

Total

30

72

63

165

Grand Total

109

36

20

Better than last year

No change Worse than last year Total

No change

Worse than last year

Yes

No

Not sure

Not sure

What has been the highlight of your year?

Retailer

Channel Expo 08 iPhone/Apple Channel Sales of laptops Other

Independents

2

1

19

15

Multiples

0

18

58

52

Total

2

19

77

67

Channel Expo 08

iPhone/Apple Channel

Sales of laptops

Other

What has been the biggest disappointment/worry of the year?

Retailer

Apple's increasing market share

Best Buy Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s announcement

Desktop PC sales

WEEE tightening

Other

Independents

0

0

5

Supermarkets Vista 7

6

2

17

Multiples

1

9

35

15

18

0

50

Total

1

9

40

22

24

2

67

Apple's increasing market share Best Buy Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s announcement Desktop PC sales Supermarkets Vista WEEE tightening Other

28 PCRetail December

www.pcretailmag.com

RETAIL SURVEY

How are you feeling about this Christmas?

Retailer

What is the biggest problem facing PC retailers at the moment?

Best Buy

Falling margins

Piracy

Supermarkets

The Internet

Independents

Better than last year No Different to last year Worse than last year 6

24

7

Independents

18

2

12

5

37

Multiples

37

39

52

Multiples

4

59

2

19

44

Grand Total

43

63

59

Grand Total

4

77

4

31

49

Better than last year

No Different to last year

Retailer

Worse than last year

Best Buy

Falling margins

Piracy

Supermarkets

The Internet

Which PC has sold best in 2008?

Retailer

Apple Macs Desktops Laptops/netbooks Media Centres

Other

Independents

1

11

24

0

1

Multiples

8

1

114

1

4

Grand Total

9

12

138

1

5

Apple Macs

Desktops

Laptops/netbooks

Media Centres

Other

Which product area has performed best in 2008?

Retailer

Accessories

Components

Games

PCs

Peripherals

Services

Software

Independents

1

1

0

11

1

19

4

Other 0

Multiples

11

1

9

64

20

8

5

10

Total

12

2

9

75

21

27

9

10

Accessories Components Games PCs Peripherals Services Software Other

www.pcretailmag.com

PCRetail December 29

Do you want to sell your products on some of the most visited and recognised retail websites in the UK?

We're currently looking for a select number of manufacturers or distributors to work with, showcasing your products directly to our huge database of end users. To learn more about this exciting opportunity please contact us at partners@evolved.co.uk or call us on 0845 224 3825.

30 PCRetail December

www.pcretailmag.com

RETAIL SURVEY

Which product area do you feel will perform best in 2009?

Retailer

Accessories

Components

Games

PCs

Peripherals

Services

Software

Independents

1

5

0

9

1

16

5

Multiples

11

1

18

64

20

11

3

Total

12

6

18

73

21

27

8

Accessories Components Games PCs Peripherals Services Software

Which PC vendor would you consider to have the best products and attitude to the channel?

Retailer

Which peripherals vendor would you consider to have the best products and attitude to the channel?

Acer (incl Gateway/Packard Bell)

Apple

Dell

HP

Other

Belkin

HP

Logitech

Microsoft

Other

Independents

8

2

4

5

18

Independents

3

2

10

5

17

Multiples

14

21

6

64

23

Multiples

49

10

43

20

6

Grand Total

22

23

10

69

41

Grand Total

52

12

53

25

23

HP

Logitech

Acer (incl Gateway/Packard Bell)

Apple

Dell

HP

Retailer

Other

Belkin

Microsoft

Other

If you use a distributor, which would you commend for its high levels of service this year?

Retailer

Computer 2000

Gem

Ingram Micro

Other

Independents

2

1

8

24

Multiples

10

6

12

24

Total

12

7

20

48

Computer 2000

www.pcretailmag.com

Gem

Ingram Micro

Other

PCRetail December 31

RETAIL SURVEY

Independents

Multiples

Who would you consider to be the overall company of the year?

Who would you consider to be the overall company of the year?

ASUS

5

Microsoft

2

HP

41

Dell

8

Acer

4

Seagate

2

Apple

16

Staples

6

None stands out

4

Intel

2

Acer

14

Toshiba

5

Epson

2

Computer 2000

1

Comet

9

Sony

3

Dell

2

KMS

1

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Know

9

PC World

2

What will be your single biggest challenge next year?

What will be your single biggest challenge next year?

Increase business

7

Rolling out more stores

2

Credit Crunch

Competition

2

Making money

3

Achieve first page search engine hits

1

Increase margin

5

Credit Worries

2

Try to grow

3

Find the right staff to meet the demands

1

Increasing sales

5

Maintaining margins

2

Consumer confidence 2

Finding new business

1

Competing with Internet prices 2

Not Known

2

Credit Crunch

Growing business in the recession

1

2

47

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32 PCRetail December

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That Ties It All Together: Wireless-N

Wireless Internet

Printing

Streaming Music

Surveillance

With all the gifts your loved ones will receive this year, why not give something to tie it all together?

A Linksys by Cisco router perfectly complements all the new gadgets, allowing them to connect smoothly and wirelessly.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a one-size-fits-all solution to a high-tech world.

Find the perfect gift! Linksys.com/uk/Gift

Linksys, Cisco and the Cisco Logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and certain other countries. Other brands are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Maximum performance derived from IEEE Standard 802.11 specifications. Actual performance can vary, including lower wireless network capacity, data throughput rate, range and coverage. Performance depends on many factors, conditions and variables, including distance from the access point, volume of network traffic, building materials and construction, operating system used, mix of wireless products used, interference and other adverse conditions. Copyright Š 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

All work and All play

Beautiful inside and out The SMT200HD 20-inch widescreen TFT features a digital TV tuner. A delicate balance between high-end design and cutting-edge technology makes this display ideal for home users.

Only £199 trade SMT200HD • Manufacturer’s code LS200TDDSUV/EN

19” Full experience, full excitement With its high contrast ratio, ultra fast response time and TV tuner, this TFT is ideal for a variety of PC and home entertainment uses.

Only £156 trade LGM1994D • Manufacturer’s code M1994D

Amazing home and gaming monitors from your award-winning distributor

22” Perfect for gaming A blistering 5ms response time makes this Full HD widescreen TFT ideal for high definition video and gaming applications.

Only £131 trade IIYE2208HDS • Manufacturer’s code PLE2208HDS

22” Stylish widescreen multifunction monitor Combine work and entertainment with this Philips widescreen multifunction monitor. It delivers outstanding front of screen performance.

Only £249 trade PHITFT220TW9FB • Manufacturer’s code 220TW9FB/05

20” Ideal for gamers and home users The LG display performs in a flexible and easy to use manner. With a low response time and a tilting, adjustable stand, it’s perfect for home users.

Only £139 trade LGL206WU • Manufacturer’s code L206WU

+ ACCESSORIES

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A mount for all needs Provide extra value and make more profit – offer your customers a Chief desk or wall mount with their next display purchase.

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Prices are trade and exclude carriage and VAT. Prices are correct at time of publication, please confirm at time of ordering. E&OE. All transactions are in accordance with our full terms and conditions, a copy of which is available upon request. All trademarks are the property of their respective manufacturers.Your calls may be recorded for training and demonstration purposes. Copyright © Midwich Limited 2008. Midwich Limited, Gilray Road, Diss, Norfolk, IP22 4YT. Job No: CA08-6716

audio visual • auto id • consumables • consumer electronics • copy/print/scan/fax • digital imaging • digital signage • hi-technology • TFT displays • which lamps

20”

2008 REVIEW

The year that was If nothing else, 2008 will be remembered as the year the financial world got in a big wobble thanks to long periods of over zealous borrowing and eyebrow raising mortgage decisions.

But it was also a year of great significance in the IT and PC channel. Andrew Wooden takes a retrospective look over the last 12 months...

JANUARY AS THE retailers reeled from Red Alert shopping days and too much turkey, they were hit with the news that arch-enemies Dell and Tesco had joined forces to put the former’s XPS and Inspiron PCs in Tesco stores. This followed a similar deal with DSGi a few months earlier.

Speaking of DSGi, the group suffered a share drop of more than 20 per cent during January, following poor Christmas trading.

Meanwhile the annual mammoth technology museum that is CES came and went. Among the numerous product launches, if one theme was to be pulled out of the show it would be the large amount of touchscreen technology being shown off – a trend which would hold particular significance later in the year with the iPhone mania.

Elsewhere in Las Vegas, the now defunct battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD raged, and swathes of firms clamoured to show off their green policies.

www.pcretailmag.com

FEBRUARY THIS MONTH saw the end of the format wars, as it was revealed that Blu-ray reached two million sales in 2007 – taking a massive 79 per cent of the next-gen DVD market. Soon after HD-DVD was declared dead, as backer Toshiba threw in the towel after what seemed like decades of tussling for the top spot.

Software giant Microsoft made its first bid for Yahoo, in what would prove to be one of the most drawn out takeover bids in the tech sector’s history.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Andy Dow was consolidating his position as channel

director at Dell UK. One of his chief initial messages was that the vendor’s decision not to use distribution firms would be good for the industry as a whole, as it would promote better relations between manufacturers and retail.

MARCH THE FIRST PC Retail Awards smashed onto the scene in March, with over 300 dealers, distributors, and suppliers descending on London’s Café Royal for the first ceremony dedicated to the computer retail channel.

Winners on the night included Gem – which took away the Grand Prix award, Enta – which won the Sales Innovation and Sales Team: Business prizes, and YOYOTech – which claimed the Independent Retailer crown.

Cebit launched with a new format, proving more popular than ever.

Organisers Deutsche Messe managed to

get 495,000 visitors through the door to ogle at the tech on show from 5,845 exhibitors. One of the most popular products on show was the new Eee PC from Asus.

However the event was slightly marred when 180 police officers and customs officials raided the show, targeting 51 exhibitors in suspicion of audio and video function related patent violations, resulting in the seizure of 68 boxes of documents, products and advertising material.

PCRetail December 35

2008 REVIEW

APRIL AFTER MAKING an impressive 31 per cent yearly growth on its consumer electronic division – largely pushed by laptop sales – Tesco was making bullish claims on its presence in the computing sector in April, prompting defiant cries from the independent sector and retail chains.

UK-based consumer software stalwart GSP officially changed its name to Avanquest Software Publishing –

the final stage of its incremental rebranding, which had been happening since Avanquest Software acquired the firm in May the previous year.

Following speculation from numerous internet sources, AMD officially confirmed it was to axe ten per cent of its 16,800 strong global workforce – a move the firm blamed on lower revenue expectations in ‘uncertain market conditions’.

OCTOBER 36 PCRetail December

MAY CHANNEL EXPO returned for its second year under the new format at Birmingham’s NEC. Over 100 exhibitors from across the country pitched up to show off their products to the 6,500 registered visitors, with new features such as the How To Sell Theatre proving popular additions.

While the channel was in the mood for trade shows, Retail Vision kicked off in Rome in the same month, having been recently bought by Everything Channel.

The event continued its tradition of tightly focused exhibitor and visitor lists, while organisers

hinted to PC Retail a UK show might be on the way.

Microsoft broke radio silence on Windows 7 following predictable mass speculation on the internet. The chief piece of information at the time appeared to be the touchscreen functionality (supported by the sample images).

Since then, the drip feed information appears to be slightly taking the peddle off this emphasis, but at the time numerous parallels were drawn to Apples’ iPhone interface.

JUNE AFTER SETTING up one of the most lucrative firms in history and doing perhaps more than anyone for making IT the massively pervasive worldwide industry it is today, Bill Gates stepped down from the day-to-day running of Microsoft. Steve Ballmer stepped up to the plate as CEO, while it was made clear Gates’ role in the future would chiefly be in an advisory capacity.

DSGi suffered a 30 per cent

AFTER MONTHS of drip-feed information and speculation, Best Buy finally gave concrete details of its European invasion plans. It was announced between 100 and 200 megastores would be hitting the continent by 2013 – the majority of them in the UK. After an extensive phone briefing to the UK press, the retailer and its European ally The Carphone Warehouse unveiled a plan to fill the gap of what it saw as a lack of good customer

profit drop, leading many to jump to the attack and question its long-term viability. The retailer remained bullish however, citing a restructure plan as integral to its recovery.

care in European IT retail.

Microsoft released details of its Azure software, based on cloud computing and essentially taking its cue from programs such as Google Docs and Hotmail. The technology would allow users to relinquish an optional amount of program running and storage to the internet.

Elsewhere AMD and Nvidia celebrated a 22.5 per cent growth in GPU market during October, following various rival product launches.

www.pcretailmag.com

2008 REVIEW

JULY THERE HAD been speculation for a while, but the fears of recession got serious in July. However, at the same time a raft of global technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, IBM and Ingram Micro, posted quarterly results which showed significant growth.

The news emerged that EMEA PC shipments smashed expectations during Q2, with a 24.5 per cent growth overall and a staggering 53 per cent growth in laptops.

This prompted many industry watchdogs to ask whether the PC industry was immune to the Credit Crunch.

The ever-growing strength of netbooks was also highlighted

during this month as it was revealed the sub£500 price point represented 78 per cent of PC sales during this period – but fears remained from retail about a market swamped with product that it struggled to make a profit on.

The ever controversial WEEE directive passed its first anniversary, and the government began ramping up pressure to comply, while trade bodies warned retailers of the dangers of not doing so.

Elsewhere, BT pledged £1.5 million to revamp the UK’s broadband infrastructure, and the 3G iPhone broke the three million sales mark.

NOVEMBER www.pcretailmag.com

AUGUST NVIDIA’S ambitious Nvision event kicked off in August, taking place across practically the whole of the city of San Jose in the US. The show’s mission statement was to promote the idea of ‘visual computing’ – that is, computing which relies more on graphics processors and parallel architecture than a CPU. The show, which featured speeches and presentations on how graphical technology can be applied to increasingly varied aspects of the modern world, was attended by a massively wide ranging set of visitors – from steel industry representatives to medical professionals

and NASA scientists.

However, many will remember the event most for the appearance of Tricia Helfer, who is best known for her role as an attractive humanlooking robot in the remake of Battlestar Galactica.

On the graphical theme, Intel unveiled more details of its Nvidia/ATi rivalling Larrabee project during August, adding to the speculation of a full on war between the three firms in the future.

Elsewhere, IBM unveiled its plan to go Windows-free in the next few years, and German buying group Synaxon announced its entry into the UK channel.

CARPHONE WAREHOUSE claimed ten per cent of the laptop market after only six months in the sector. The move came as a clear indicator of just how integral netbook sales are to the prosperity of the PC market, since the retailer more or less exclusively deals in free or heavily discounted machines

with broadband contracts.

Microsoft put an end to the ongoing saga of the potential acquisition of Yahoo, with CEO Steve Ballmer stating it was no longer interested in a takeover deal – even after the Yahoo’s CEO made a public statement saying: “We’re willing to sell the company.”

SEPTEMBER AFTER A difficult year full of painful financial reports and a certain US rival squaring up from across the Atlantic, DSGi’s planned refit and rebranding began to take serious shape in September, with the unveiling of a new megastore and the news that 25 sites across the country were to be refitted with a new look and layout in time for Christmas.

Ingram Micro’s very own trade show Retail Expo returned for a second year, this time hitting Islington with its entourage of 35 vendor exhibitors.

While lacking the scale of the previous year’s

Wembley Stadium venue, the event was praised for its practicality in terms of getting to and from the venue.

In a riposte to Apple’s ‘Mac and PC’ ads, Microsoft threw millions into a campaign looking to dismantle the dull, suited stereotype of a PC user, utilising TV funny man Jerry Seinfeld and a versatile host of PC users including hip hop stars and deep sea divers.

DECEMBER WHILE HINDSIGHT is always 20/20, we’re afraid the same can’t be said for foresight.

It would be foolish (and potentially libellous) to make some wild stabs in the dark in terms of corporate movements, but if we were to make a prediction for

the last month of 2008, we’d say while there’s no doubt that this Christmas is going to be a little tighter for retailers than previous years, sales on lower cost items such as accessories or peripherals will provide a much needed profit boost.

PCRetail December 37

DRX-S70U/R Slim Drive Multi-Format DVD Burner It records standard 4.7GB DVD+R/+RW, 8.5GB DVD+R Double/Dual Layer, DVD-RAM, and CD-R/RW discs.

Whether you have a desktop PC or a laptop, the DRX-S70Uâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleek black design looks great.

DRX-S70U/R Slim drive Ingram Micro P/N W520097

Scorpio Blue 500GB Hard Drive WD Scorpio Blue drives offer high-performance, low power consumption, and cool operation, perfect for notebooks and other portable devices.

500GB capacity, 5400 rpm, 8MB Cache, Serial ATA-300 Scorpio Blue 500GB HDD Ingram Micro P/N 1410809

P6T Deluxe Motherboard Supports new i7 Intel CPUs With Super Hybrid Engine delivers extreme overclocking and optimal energy efďŹ ciency.

FSB1600, SATA2, S1366, ATX

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Deskstar 7K1000 1TB Hard Drive The Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard disk drive delivers up to one terabyte of storage capacity for demanding consumer and commercial computing products.

Deskstar 7K100 1TB Ingram Micro P/N 6950848

Micro Fusion Remote 350 Mini HTPC Enclosure Featuring an aluminum front bezel, an LCD display, remote control and a built-in IR receiver, the MicroFusion Remote 350 has a sleek and stylish look.

Also avalable..

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Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB Hard Drive Designed with up to four platters and the only second-generation perpendicular recording technology in the industry.

1.5TB capacity, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, Serial ATA-300

Seagate 5-Year Warranty

Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB Ingram Micro P/N 2752313

FreeAgent Go 5400.2 500GB HDD Ideal for letting you carry your desktop environment and your files anytime, anywhere.

500GB storage, 2.5”, 5400rpm.

FreeAgent Go Accessory Pack Inc. Docking station Ingram Micro P/N 2752338

Seagate 5-Year Warranty

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StorCenter ix2 Network Storage StorCenter ix2 Network Storage offers advanced security, storage and content sharing in an easy-to-use product ideal for small networks.

Up 2TB storage, Serial ATA-300 - RAID 1, 400 MHz CPU StorCenter ix2 1TB Ingram Micro P/N 6181188

StorCenter ix2 2TB Ingram Micro P/N 6181187

EXCLUSIVE TO INGRAM MICRO FIBRE OPTIC CABLE - Duplex Manufactured by Belkin These cables ensure the performance and reliability of servers, storage and network switches. They are built with the highest-quality fiber cable and connectors. All V7 cables manufactured by Belkin are factory-terminated and tested to ensure the highest level of performance and reliability.

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AMD VS NVIDIA

R

Battle of the

graphics giants

N U O D

2

In the months since we last put AMD/ATi and Nvidia head to head, there have been new releases, important deals and a rebrand. Andrew Wooden goes ringside to catch up with the rival graphic chip giants on the state of the market… ccording to estimates from Jon Peddie Research last month, the GPU market saw year-on-year growth of 22.5 per cent during the last quarter. The only two real players in the discrete graphics chip market have both released new products of late, each hoping to nudge ahead of the other in performance and market share, in both the high-end and mobile sectors.

AMD, under the new ‘The Future is Fusion’ branding, is currently pushing its newly launched HD 4800 series, which it says represents the fastest and most powerful offering on the market. We spoke to John Byrne, vice president of worldwide GPU sales, about the market and its position with rival Nvidia.

A

THE FUTURE IS FUSION

John Byrne

40 PCRetail December

What does the HD4800 series offer that was not already out there?

There are a number of features that the series offers.

However, the most important thing it offers is the best performance at every price in the performance/ enthusiast market.

Other features include Direct X 10.1 gaming support, the most superior hardware decode acceleration for high definition and Blu-ray movies,

the best power envelope at every price point, native display port support, and seamless 7.1 audio over HDMI. Does it represent the most advanced graphics processor currently available?

The short answer is yes. The ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 isn’t just the most advanced graphics processor currently available on the market, it is also the fastest one.

How will you consolidate that in the future?

In order to consolidate our lead it is essential that we continue to evaluate the marketplace and to deliver innovative products that meet the price performance needs of our customers and partners. Part of this includes ensuring that our products are delivered on time and that availability is not an issue.

Will you be looking to boost marketing/ retailer support following the ‘Future is Fusion’ rebrand?

Yes – this is an important strategic move for us as a company moving forward and so it will be supported by all sides of the business including marketing and retail.

www.pcretailmag.com

AMD VS NVIDIA

THE BIG APPLE After making an important deal with Apple to introduce its GeForce 9400M in the new wave of MacBooks, Nvidia is going on the offensive in what is new territory for the firm. Serge Palaric, director OEM business EMEA, discusses the new product and its plans on the market.

Does the GeForce 9400M represent the most advanced mobile graphics processor available at the moment?

The GeForce 9400M is our most advanced mobile processor to date; it shares the same processor architecture but obviously has less cores than the GTX280. Where the GeForce 9400M is particularly special is that is the most advanced GPU with integrated core logic so it truly sits at the heart of your notebook.

Does it represent an advantage over AMD’s current offering?

Yes, the GeForce 9400M is approximately twice as fast as any current DirectX10 integrated graphics solution. Not only that, but Nvidia GPUs are the only place where you will find Graphics Plus – in addition to rendering visuals, Nvidia’s CUDA means the possibilities for acceleration are only limited by developer’s imagination.

The GeForce 9400M can massively increase video encoding on an application like Elemental’s Badaboom. In games it can use Nvidia PhysX to make your experience richer and more realistic, an actual living world. A real-world way of benchmarking this is to use 3DMark Vantage, which shows the GeForce 9400M has up to a 5X advantage over its competitors.

GPU accelerated applications like Adobe CS4 can increase productivity. For example, GPU acceleration means in Photoshop you now have a more fluid and natural way of working. You no longer have to wait to rotate a picture, zooming in is smooth, and panning your image just requires an effortless mouse gesture.

What plans do you have going forward to push this latest offering and how important is its inclusion in the new MacBooks?

We have been and will continue to market this offering to leading notebook manufacturers. The majority of them already plan notebook SKUs around the GeForce 9400M. You will see announcements from them over the coming weeks and months.

Apple’s adoption of the GeForce 9400M throughout their notebook line is an incredible endorsement for the GeForce 9400M and GPUs in general. Apple is among the world’s most respected technology leaders, and the fact that it has put a GPU throughout their notebook line tells the industry that graphics processors are essential for a good visual computing experience. We believe this is the beginning of establishing a new industry standard for notebook graphics.

Choice for customers is important and until now there wasn’t one. The availability of the Nvidia GeForce 9400M now allows customers the choice to have a great GPU in their notebooks and to experience all the wonders of new visual computing applications.

Serge Palaric

Choice for customers is important and until now there wasn’t one. The availability of the Nvidia GeForce 9400M allows customers the choice to have a great GPU in their notebooks.

Serge Palaric, Nvidia Nvidia believes that the GeForce 9400M is the beginning of a new industry standard for notebook graphics

www.pcretailmag.com

PCRetail December 41

The perfect networking opportunity.

Over 300 representatives from the small business and digital home sectors will attend next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PC Retail Awards in Kensington.

Companies who attended this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inaugural PC Retail awards included: Acer Ainsdale Amazon.co.uk AMD Antec Arb Co Computers Ltd Asustek Avanquest AVG Axia Computer Sytems Barrington Harvey Bear IT Belkin Components Limited Big Red Solutions Bluepoint Brigantia Bullguard Causeway Compter Services CCL Computers

Comet Computer Shop @ Plymouth Computers Unlimited DABS Dalkia Data Wind Digimate Drum BraeSolutions DSGI Ebuyer Enta Entatech Envizage Forum Computers Gear 4 GEM Gemstone Computers GfK Marketing Services GZ Computers Hannspree Hi Grade

HMV Individual Computers Limited Ingram Micro Intel Interactive Ideas Limited ISE Computers ITACS John Lewis Kaspersky KMGS KMS Components Ltd Lenovo Lexar Logitech London Computer Centre M2M Medea Meroncourt Mesh Computers

Micro Anvika Microsoft More2 New Look Novatech One Click Technologies PC n Digital PC Specialist PCA Phones 4 U Play.com PNY Positive Computing Realtime Distribution Ltd Reggiani Lighting Ltd Samsung Samuel King Scan Shasonic Galleria Staples

Stone Computers Success International Sunrise Telecom Limited Support Lounge Symantec Target Components Targus Tec 7 Tesco Stores Tom Tom Toshiba Information Systems VIP W H Smith Widget Wyvern Business Systems XMA Y3K YourTechOnline Yoyotech

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YOUR STORE YOUR TEAM YOUR AWARDS

AWARDS REVIEW

Past masters

As the countdown to the industry’s leading award ceremony well and truly kicks off, Andrew Wooden asks previous winners what it meant to win a PC Retail Award at this year’s inaugural event…

Awards have no value unless they have integrity. It is refreshing to see a new award where the winners are genuine. It gives the winners their just rewards for the efforts that they put into providing the best quality service for their customers.

Paul Cubbage, Target Components

TARGET 44 PCRetail December

Specialist Distributor – Target Components “Needless to say last year’s event was a success, with a good turnout and a great atmosphere, but the best compliment I can pay PC Retail is regarding the integrity of the awards.

Awards have no value unless they have integrity.

We can all recollect blatant examples of awards in the past that have been clearly ‘bought’. For example, new, unknown and now defunct ‘manufacturers’ winning best laptop awards that they have sponsored. Quite often you could predict the category winners by looking down the list of sponsors.

In the past, we have been as good as told by award organisers that the reason we didn’t win was because we hadn’t sponsored/advertised whereas the ‘winner’ had.

Target was an inaugral PCR Award Winner last year despite the fact that two of the finalists in our category were show sponsors and we weren’t. It is refreshing to see a new award where the winners are the genuine winners and not the sponsors or the entrants with the biggest advertising spend. Not only does it reflect the integrity of the organisers, but it also gives the winners their just rewards for the efforts that they put into providing the best quality service for their customers, and fairly reflects the opinion of the channel rather than the marketing budget of the winners”.

Paul Cubbage, managing director

GEM Grand Prix Award – Gem “Last year marked the birth for the PC Retail Awards and it has already become an important date in the diary for recognising the achievements of the IT retail channel.

Gem won the prestigious Grand Prix Award which represented the changes Gem has undergone and our achievements in this sector.

Winning this award was a huge privilege for us and it has further enforced our presence in the IT channel.”

Simon Lee, commercial and marketing director Sales Team, Sales Innovation – ENTA “The rewards we received were just fantastic, not just for us but also for our customers and suppliers.

We have worked extremely hard this year in driving Enta as a serious player in distribution.

These awards are helping us to achieve that.”

Jon Atherton, commercial group vice president

www.pcretailmag.com

AWARDS REVIEW ENTA been using it in all of our marketing materials ever since then.

In a market where no-stock-vendors and their electronic backends are springing up all over the place, we believe that the PC Retail Awards are rapidly becoming this industry’s kite mark for consumers. Some guarantee that the organisation they are buying from is reputable and offers exceptional levels of service and support.

In essence, when we show customers our PC Retail Award, we are showing them that our own industry holds us in the highest regard – and that is priceless.”

C Kohli, founder High Street Independent – YOYOTech “Winning a PC Retail Award earlier this year was one of the proudest moments in YOYOTech’s ten-year history. To win an award that has been both nominated by and voted for your peers is very special. It is special because those people are the only ones who will ever truly appreciate just how much hard work is involved.

The event itself was great: a good chance to come together with friends and customers, as well as an opportunity to build new relationships for the coming year. It happens at a good time in the year, when everyone is buzzing with ideas from CeBIT and building up to making new deals over at Computex.

YOYOTech immediately integrated the PC Retail Award into a new company logo and we have

VIP Sales Team: Home – VIP “VIP was proud to sponsor the inaugural PC Retail Awards in 2008. The evening was a great opportunity for the channel to get together to celebrate and reward achievements. Winning Sales Team: Home topped off a highly enjoyable night and we are very much looking forward to next year’s awards.”

Joanne Meredith, marketing manager

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ANALYSIS

Synaxon AG’s headquarters in Germany

Anglo-Synaxon EXCLUSIVE: Ben Furfie sits down with Synaxon UK’s managing director to discuss what the German organisation’s entry into the channel means for retailers and resellers…

I wouldn’t consider Synaxon a buying group; rather, it’s a channel enhancement company, one that is there to support all of its members – both resellers and distributors – and to make the process of running a business a lot simpler.

Derek Jones Synaxon

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he channel is set to experience a whole new trade organisation in 2009 according to managing director of Synaxon UK Derek Jones, who sat down with PC Retail this month to talk through his company’s launch plans.

One of the first things Jones did was to stress that Synaxon isn’t a buying group; at least not in the traditional sense. “This is a whole new level of organisation,” explained Jones, speaking exclusively to PC Retail. “I wouldn’t consider Synaxon a buying group; rather, it’s a channel enhancement company, one that is there to support its members – both reseller and distributor – and to make the process of running a business in the channel a lot simpler than what it currently is.”

Indeed, on first impressions, the support options available to retailers and resellers are on a new level. “I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at the efficiency of the group and how much it can help their business,” added Jones.

The organisation is keen to avoid any sense of it being one that takes its dealers for granted, with Jones stressing that members are partners. Indeed, the element of partnership is built right into the UK

T

wing of Synaxon, and with the firm offering two levels of membership – Synaxon Technology Partner, and Premier Partner – its partner program is shaping up to be one of the unique aspects of the group.

“We have two partner levels,” explains Jones.

“The first, which is free to all PCA members, gives partners access to a free bi-monthly mailer that can be personalised with their company details, access to all supplier agreements, basic listing on the Synaxon website and a three month free trial to our stock procurement platform EGIS. “In addition, we also offer the Synaxon Technology Premier Partner which costs £99 per month and offers a free professionally overprinted bi-monthly mailer, detailed listing on the Synaxon site, priority leads via the call locator system, free use of standard EGIS and a ten per cent discount on all other Synaxon services,” added Jones.

One of the key things that he is keen to point out, is the level of support the organisation has had from all quarters of the channel. At the time of going to press, the number of distribution partners stood at eight, with names such as Entatech, CMS Components and Widget all on board.

PCRetail December 47

ANALYSIS

It’s not just distributors that have been singing the praises of Synaxon’s plans. During the summer, the organisation took ten reseller partners to the organisation’s German event to give them a flavour of what to expect when the organisation gets up to full speed early next year.

“I think the key thing is that Synaxon is structured differently to other organisations in the channel,” commented director of Edinburgh-based reseller Drum Brae Solutions, Mike Hoffman, who was one of the people the firm took to the main conference. “That’s not to say it’s something brand new, it’s just that it’s the first to bring everything together in such a cohesive and useful way.

“I think the key thing is that its back end system isn’t necessarily a threat to buying groups’ existing purpose; in fact if anything, it could free them up from having to develop their own solutions to focus on getting their members the best deal possible, even more so than they can do at the moment,” added Hoffman. “The way I see it is that there is the potential for Synaxon and the channel’s buying groups to work together and to all benefit.” The PCA’s chief executive Keith Warburton echoed Hoffman: “There’s nothing to say that a reseller can’t belong to multiple groups. In these times resellers need all the help they can get.”

It is Synaxon’s EGIS (Enterprise Global Information System) that it sees as one of the key reasons behind its success. “Unlike some other systems, this has benefits not just for resellers, but also for distributors and many others involved in the partner programme,” explains Jones, echoing Hoffman’s suggestion that even existing buying groups could benefit from the system.

ROOM FOR ONE MORE? And despite running an already established trade body in the UK himself, the PCA’s chief executive Keith Warburton said that choice was always a good thing: “The more options resellers have, the better.”

He was also keen to sing the praises of the EGIS system: “Synaxon seems to have quite a clear differentiator, its EGIS system.”

He was also eager to encourage retailers and resellers to investigate how the group could help them. “It seems to me that resellers have nothing at all to lose by being part of Synaxon – base level membership doesn’t cost them anything at all – and they can benefit considerably from the advantages Synaxon offers.”

Drum Brae Solutions’ Mike Hoffman

48 PCRetail December

However, for the time being, Synaxon isn’t planning to imitate every aspect of its German parent. “I think the key thing to bear in mind is that the UK isn’t Germany; things that work there might not be so successful here so we can’t rush blind into situations,” Jones told us. One example of where the organisation isn’t planning on copying its parent is in terms of franchising. “We’re not looking at introducing the franchise system to the UK, but you can never say never. It’s just not one of things we feel is most important to focus on at the moment.”

PCA chief executive Keith Warburton

I think the key thing about Synaxon is its back end system...it’s not necessarily a threat to buying groups’ purpose; in fact, if anything, it could free them to chase new deals.

Mike Hoffman, Drum Brae Solutions Synaxon managing director Derek Jones

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2009 PREDICTIONS

The year ahead As we bid farewell to economically battered 2008 and cautiously welcome in the new year, Andrew Wooden gathers up prominent industry figures and asks them whether the channel can look to a better or worse time in 2009…

Sarah Kidner, Editor, Computing Which?

We have a very exciting range of products launching, and these will drive new levels of performance for computers. For vendors, the ability to evolve and build sustainable revenue streams and customer loyalty will be key.

Gerald Grattoni, Intel

Gerald Grattoni, UK and Ireland Channel Manager, Intel

I don’t think computer retailers will suffer too much. Technology is one area where the prices of components continues to fall. Consumers will continue to see the prices of key technology products falling. However, I'd like to see more emphasis on sustainable/green products and on the human costs of keeping prices down.

It'll be interesting to watch Microsoft ramp up the PR for Windows 7, and for its cloud computing proposition. Personally, I don't think consumers have warmed to Windows Vista. Whether they'll warm to Windows 7… the jury's still out.

Economic conditions are challenging and it does make predicting events more tricky.

What Intel will do as a company is to continue to execute to our roadmap. We have a very exciting range of products launching in the remainder of this year and also into 2009, which I‘m very much looking forward to, and these will drive new levels of performance for computing. For vendors, the ability to evolve and build sustainable revenue streams and customer loyalty through servicing models and/or increased specialisation will be key. As Gordon Moore once said: “Recessions always end and innovation allows some companies to emerge from them stronger than before.”

50 PCRetail December

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2009 PREDICTIONS

Michael Breeze, Marketing Director Interactive Ideas

Richard Baker, European Channel Marketing Manager, AMD

Michael Sanderson, Head of Marketing and Design, Exspect

I think it would be a brave man who would predict any large growth within the retail channel in 2009. There will no doubt be some companies that will show growth greater than the market average due to being able to take advantage of product trends or through providing the service today’s consumer demands. But I would also think that we will see a number underperforming and others disappearing completely; when times are hard it does sort out the well run companies from the bad.

It's difficult to look past the credit crunch – consumers won’t have high levels of expendable income and confidence is low. Some products will tempt consumers to spend but the general trend will be to keep hold of their money.

The industry event I’m looking forward to most in 2009 has to be the PC Retail Awards.

Of course the downturn in the economy is going to make everything more difficult for retailers and suppliers alike. But this could almost be viewed as an opportunity if retailers and suppliers can make the most of this change in market trends; it is often said that the best advantages can be made at market inflection points. Also it should not just be seen as a matter of surviving the economic downturn. It’s not just a case of clearing the fence, it’s how you land that determines how fast you are on the flat.

Certainly the move to ‘appropriate’ computing is very interesting for AMD. With PC manufacturers and users both demanding systems more tailored to their usage patterns, it has become apparent that AMD’s ability to produce and match all the major PC components (graphics, processor and chipset) is a noticeable advantage. For instance, the movement in relative importance from processor performance to graphics performance has been recognised by the market as substantiated by the rapid increase in market share of the very successful HD4000 series of graphics processors. I am really looking forward to the progression of this ‘balanced platform’ trend with the introduction of AMD’s newest processor and graphics families which will drive this trend even further.

In terms of the biggest threats in 2009, obviously the delay to purchases of PCs in the short term and the then inevitable lowering of ASPs when consumers can delay their purchase of PCs no longer and go for more ‘appropriate’ systems. The challenge will be to maintain margins on a lower ASPs. Those with a more costly brand image will suffer and those that can provide a more cost effective solution will be more successful.

2009 is going to be challenging, but in every sector of every market there are those that will suffer and those that will prosper. Retailers and etailers that continue to offer an engaging clear proposition to consumers will continue to sell products. In among all the doom and gloom of recent months there are some channels posting very positive results.

It’s going to be an interesting time for us to monitor our competitors as it may throw up some acquisitions or collaboration opportunities for Exspect, either here or overseas as our recent developments outside of the UK are proving to be very successful indeed.

The biggest threats to retailers will be stocking the cheapest products purchased purely on price alone. All channels should try to surround themselves with partners that are financially secure, offering additional services via knowledge and expertise, and that adopt a flexible approach to business. Our collaborative approach has allowed us to build some really strong foundations in 2008, and we expect to build on them in 2009 as it gets more challenging.

Mark Needham, Executive Chairman and Founder, Widget Better or worse are relative terms. Better to be a retailer in 2009 than an Icelandic banker! But compared to 2008, 2009 will be a challenging year for us all. The biggest threat to retailers in 2009 is that the exchange rate will mean that we no longer can expect goods priced in dollars to be cheaper next year than this.

The product launch we are most looking forward to is the shipping of the update of the PocketSurfer, the 2R. The original Pocketsurfer 2 has done well in UK markets; the 2R allows roaming throughout Europe and North America at an attractive 5p per minute, so we look forward to expanding into duty free with this new product.

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It is clear that consumer confidence will be fragile in 2009, and retailers need to have a clear plan to deal with the unique challenges of this environment. Customer focus must be core, and as a business we are prudently managing our cash.

Mark Webb, DSGi

Mark Webb, DSGi There's no doubt next year will be tough, and we are still proceeding at great pace with our 'Renewal and Transformation' programme, for the business to offer great shopping for our customers. Despite the environment, customers will still respond to a strong combination of value, choice and service. This was clearly demonstrated with the opening of our pilot Currys Megastore near Birmingham, which took some £2.3 million on its open weekend.

In product terms, the technology cycle is fantastic at the moment: netbooks; high definition products; the gaming market; the growth of the free laptop with contract market where we are leading the way; the potential for end-to-end service offered by our TechGuys... These are just some examples of the great new developments for customers.

It is clear that consumer confidence will be fragile in 2009, and retailers need to have a clear plan to deal with the unique challenges of this environment.

Customer focus must be core, and as a business we are prudently managing our cash, cutting costs where possible and where the customer is not impacted, improving margin and managing stock to the appropriate levels.

PCRetail December 51

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BLETCHLEY PARK

Wrens operating the Colossus computer...

Birth of an industry After gaining an initial burst of funding to keep it going, those looking after Bletchley Park – home of the first ever computer – are looking for further investment to maintain the site. Andrew Wooden takes a look at the Big Bang of the information technology industry…

Bletchley Park is fundamental to the history of the computer. The accomplishments of the unsung intellectual warriors here heralded the dawn of the Information Age we take so much for granted.

Simon Greenish, Director of Bletchley Park Trust

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ar is the mother of all invention.

Essentially, this not a particularly ambiguous saying – if there’s a very real chance your country could be invaded, the pressure’s on to come up with some punchier tech to help with the war effort. The quote could be changed to ‘being threatened is the quickest way to get stuff done’ – were it not for the poetic deficiency and potential for abuse by employers.

The six years in which World War Two took place in particular represented a remarkable rate of technological advancement, sowing the seeds for even more remarkable development in the decades that followed. While Einstein was battling with the idea that the atomic bomb he did so much to create might cause an atmospheric chain reaction that could crack the globe in half, British code breakers were busy nailing together the Colossus – the machine that is now regarded as the grandfather of the modern PC, and the first step towards the Information Age. Since Bletchley Park and the machines it housed represent the Big Bang of our industry, Simon Greenish, director of the Bletchley Park Trust,

W

argues we should be paying it more attention: “Bletchley Park is fundamental to the history of the computer. Colossus – the world's very first semiprogrammable electronic computer – was developed here and systematically broke the German High Command Lorenz cipher often before it was even read by Hitler and his generals.

“Due to the veil of secrecy surrounding the technological advances made here during World War Two, this fact was hidden from the world for 30 years after the end of the war and therefore the brilliant and innovative engineers responsible have only very slowly begun to attain the credit they deserve for their achievements. The accomplishments of the unsung intellectual warriors at Bletchley Park heralded the dawn of the Information Age we take so much for granted today.”

It’s true. Literally everything in any way classed as ‘techy’ – laptops, security software, flash drives, web-mail, MMOs, CAD design systems and Trojans – was spawned from the Colossus computer and those first early steps in computational hardware.

Those tasked with maintaining Bletchley Park

PCRetail December 53

BLETCHLEY PARK

Bletchley Park: Then and now

would like to see the current custodians of the technology industry take a larger role in investing in and promoting awareness of the historic site.

“It is important for us all to remember where it all started and although there is heightened awareness I do think more could be done in identifying and celebrating Bletchley Park as the birthplace of the modern computer,” continues Greenish. “Many of those who worked on the early computers at Bletchley continued their work after WWII and influenced the design of the first commercial computers and even the development of the internet.

“The Bletchley Park Trust was formed in 1992 to ensure that the

Above L-R: Sir Francis Richards and Simon Greenish of Bletchley Park and Dr Simon Thurley of English Heritage Main picture: The Colossus rebuild

54 PCRetail December

wartime achievements of these people were celebrated and remembered. The aim of the Trust is now to turn Bletchley Park into a world-class heritage and educational centre to reflect the significance of the technological advances made here and the impact they had on the outcome of World War Two and the twentieth century.

“Any assistance given in achieving this aim by modern PC and technology firms would be tremendous.

“We would be delighted to see UK technology firms get involved in driving awareness and upkeep of Bletchley Park. IBM and PGP have demonstrated their support by making a £50,000 donation to The National Museum of Computing which, although a different organisation to the Bletchley Park Trust, is housed here and is all part of our visitor experience. However, there is great scope and opportunity for other firms to develop partnerships with Bletchley Park and we believe there are huge possibilities for some prestigious brand association initiatives.”

The organisers have managed to rally initial funding to upkeep the property, but are

The aim of the Trust is to turn Bletchley Park into a world-class heritage and educational centre to reflect the significance of the advances made here.

Simon Greenish, Director of Bletchley Park Trust looking to the UK technology channel for further private investment.

“English Heritage has laid down the gauntlet to other funding bodies, organisations and individuals by pledging £100,000 a year over the next three years, on condition that the funding is matched by outside partners,” says Greenish. “The total possible investment of £600,000 would be allocated to restoring the key elements and buildings of Bletchley Park which are in crucial state of disrepair. For that match-funding to come from a UK technology firm would be marvellously fitting.”

In terms of what those early pioneers such as Alan Turing would make of the current technology landscape, Greenish says: “I think they would be fascinated. The speed of innovation at wartime Bletchley Park was phenomenal and the speed of innovation which has taken the internet from a new technology to something that underpins the very way we do everything today has been equally as fast.”

In an industry perpetually looking towards the future, it’s natural to be concerned only with the next big thing, be that a new killer mobile product, ever more cored processors, better armed graphics cards, or the inconceivably high levels of memory required to push us into the truly digital home. As we continue the march forward – towards possible conclusions such as the realisation of total cloud computing, laptops actually for everyone on the planet, and true Isaac Asimov-style artificial intelligence – it might be worth having a glance behind our shoulder every now and again at the road that led us there.

www.pcretailmag.com

INTERVIEW: BLIZZARD

Caught in a

Blizzard I don’t buy or subscribe to this ongoing discussion over the death of PC Gaming.

World of Warcraft, for example, has proven that to be incorrect.

Paul Sams, Blizzard

56 PCRetail December

Following the massively successful launch of the World of Warcraft add on Wrath of the Lich King, Jonathon Harker talks to Paul Sams, chief operating officer at Blizzard…

How much are MMOs propping up PC hardware sales?

I don’t buy or subscribe to this ongoing discussion over the death of PC gaming. World of Warcraft for example has proven that to be incorrect. I think that there’s always going to be a very big place for PCs – they are multi-use devices. Consoles are brilliant, but at this stage are not multi-use devices, or at least not compared to a PC. If I have a PC, I can play games on it, do my work on it, I can use it as a communication device with email, and so on, and it has such a diverse use that we’re going to continue to see that as a staple in homes.

If they have a limited amount to spend, then people are going to go for PCs as there are so many other uses for them.

Are games such as World of Warcraft representative of how PC gaming will be in the future?

I think it’s all about great games being made for the PC platform. MMOs will certainly be a genre that will play a big role on experiences on PC, but I think that if you provide other great games and great content there are different genres that are quite successful. If we didn’t think PC was the place to be then we wouldn’t be making Starcraft II or Diablo III and we really feel that it’s about creating great games. It’s like Field of Dreams – if we create great games then they will come and play them. We don’t feel that it’s a PC versus console conversation at all, we feel that it’s all about great games.

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INTERVIEW: BLIZZARD

Do you think MMOs are intimidating for the uninitiated or the casual gamer?

Some MMOs can be, however we have really developed a mentality of making our games easy to learn and hard to master, so the uninitiated can get into the game and it’s a very easy and gentle learning curve for them. Eventually they’re doing very difficult things because we’ve introduced them to it gradually at an appropriate timepoint. We think of World of Warcraft as very accessible for new players that might be considered more casual, but also it really ramps up quickly to serve the needs of the hardcore gamer.

Is WOW more accessible than other MMOs? I think so, that’s kind of Blizzard’s design philosophy – to make it accessible yet really focused on delivering what’s needed for the hardcore. We’ve been able to do that not only in World of Warcraft but in our other games too. I think that’s something that sets Blizzard apart.

Is the plan to continue to release expansion packs for Warcraft? Or will you be concentrating on another franchise?

As it relates to World of Warcraft we’re very committed to that product, and to providing ongoing content between expansions. We’ll concentrate on that and you can count on there being further expansions for World of Warcraft. There’s a passionate group of players that play World of Warcraft and we’re going to continue to support that group for as long as there are a meaningful number of people that want to play it. That doesn’t mean that Blizzard is resting on its laurels either. We’ve got Starcraft II in development as well as Diablo III and we have an unannounced next generation MMO, but we’re not giving out details on that, or any specifics. However, it is publicly known because we are hiring for that project. We’re keeping ourselves busy and not just sitting around.

Is the next WOW expansion planned already?

Well, we don’t have anything to share on that but the development team has a very long forward look, and they don’t know all the specifics elements of the future, but the general framework is in the heads of the production staff, designers and team members.

So they do know where it is going to go, but a lot of specifics they determine along the way. It has long legs and it’s going to be around for a very long time.

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It’s one of the biggest challenges when making an expansion or content update – deciding what to put in while keeping the theme coherent.

We have a lot of creative people on the team and they have no shortage of great ideas – it’s a matter of figuring out the right ideas for each content update or expansion that fits the story that we’re trying to tell. Every time I talk to that group the ideas just keep overflowing, so we feel there’s a lot still to do.

Do people have time to play more than one MMO at a time?

I think they do – Blizzard has really focused on delivering an MMO experience that accommodates a variety of play styles and timing, certainly there are different experiences that you can have in World of Warcraft, including the longer sessions of play. With our questing system I think we’ve done a really good job of creating an experience for players that can be really short – you can go in and be heroic for 30 minutes, allowing you to complete quests in short spaces of time.

A lot of people talk about MMOs requiring a large amount of the gamers’ time to advance in and enjoy and I think for certain games in the genre that might be the case, but for World of Warcraft the way that we’ve designed it is to be such a questing heavy experience that it can be experienced in a lot of bite sized chunks as opposed to endless grind.

Finally, what does Blizzard hope to achieve over the next year?

The continual focus for us is to not take our eye off the ball for World of Warcraft as at the moment, it’s the big game that we’re supporting.

We’re looking to make strong progress on Starcraft II and Diablo III as well as our as yet unannounced MMO. Its a challenging time for us – we’ve got a variety of balls in the air right now, and the trick is to make sure we give enough focus to each area. That’s always our challenge.

Record numbers of gamers queued for up to 36 hours to get their hands on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack (pictured)

PCRetail December 57

MYSTERY SHOPPER: PETERBOROUGH

On a budget Our Mystery Shopper visited retailers in Peterborough to shop for an entertainment PC with a budget of around £600 – so what was available? We looked at product specification, store recommendation, product descriptions, available accessories, software deals and price…

SIX STORES WERE VISITED: Currys, PC World, John Lewis, Currys.digital, Comet and Tesco.

Infinite Field Marketing Solutions is a leading provider of field marketing services to the technology sector. The solutions provided include Training, Market Research, Mystery Shopping, Demonstration Days, Roadshows, Merchandising and Compliance & Data capture. Visit our website for details and to request a case study.

CURRYS

PC WORLD

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INSTEAD of walking into this store to see salesmen serving customers, I found they were busy with tidying up and vacuum cleaning. The choice of laptops and PCs were interspersed with gaps between the stock. I would have hoped the displays would have been full this time of year.

I was approached by a salesman asking me if I needed help. After explaining that I was looking for a PC for around £600, he told me to wait whilst he called his colleague over. Another salesman approached; I explained to him again my quest for a reasonably priced PC. Without hesitation, he launched into his sales pitch, almost jumping on the Packard Bell iMedia 2415 that

was displayed on an end-cap display, adding “this would be ideal for me.” The specs included Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor, Windows Vista, 3GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7050 GPU, four USB connections and a 18-in-one card reader.

On the TV front, he suggested Sony KDL20S3000U, priced £289.00. In total, the package came to £688.99, a little over budget, but still worth considering.

Overall, it was a good price for an entertainment PC and television monitor.

I WAS taken past quite a few expensive models before getting to the Dell Inspiron 530/2590, priced £569. It came with Windows Vista, Windows Media centre and was easy to use. There was a pretty impressive demo emphasising editing, slide shows and music storage.

It came with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor, 3GB RAM, 640GB hard drive, Intel X3000 and six USB connections. “How about watching TV,” I asked. Whilst it didn’t have the built in technology for this, all I would have to do is buy Pinnacle PCTV Nano Stick, priced

£39.99 or a Hauppauge WinTV Nova T 500 card at £49.99.

If I wanted to play high specification computer games, l would have to spend more money, roughly around the £700-£800 mark. Trying to close the deal, the sales assistant told me that if I bought the deal today, he would throw in Norton Security for £30 in a package deal.

Overall this desktop bundle would have cost me around £618.99.

SCORE: 5/10

SCORE: 7/10 PCRetail December 59

MYSTERY SHOPPER: PETERBOROUGH

JOHN LEWIS

THE TECHNOLOGY department seemed hidden; everyone too busy to ask. I finally found a signage board next to the escalators telling me that the department was on the second floor of the store.

This store showed no sign of the Credit Crunch furore, with shoppers keeping sales people busy. Explaining that I was looking for a £600 entertainment PC; his first reaction was my chosen budget was very small and l might struggle. He thought a laptop with Windows Media Centre ‘would be a good option’. He suggested that I consider Samsung’s R410 a 2Ghz laptop with a 14.1-inch display, priced £499.

I reminded him that I was keen to watch and record TV. This wouldn’t have enough hardware spec, he said. If I wanted something built-in I would be looking to pay

around £1000 pointing to the HP Touchsmart IQ500 Desktop PC, an all-singing-all-dancing machine.

Sticking with his laptop recommendation, I wondered if there was a hardware accessory option – as recommended in other stores visited – that would allow me to stick to the first price offered. As I hoped, the Hauppauge WinTV HVR900 Digital and Analogue TV USB Receiver was produced, priced £69.95.

Together for around £570 I could get everything I wanted, although would have preferred to have been shown more options. I could only presume the store was short-staffed, a pretty obvious assumption before me with a surprisingly busy technology department given the news out in the High Street.

SCORE: 6/10

CURRYS.DIGITAL

COMET

TESCO

60 PCRetail December

THIS STORE was busy. I could see it was going to be some time before I would be served. Watching the salesmen and women before me, I could see that this could take a while.

Overhearing sales pitches, these guys were being pretty thorough with their customers – a good thing, of course, but it meant long conversations. This gave the impression that I was going to get great service, once I got there.

I waited for around nine minutes before noticing a salesman who was finishing with a customer, so hung around nearby to catch him before someone else came along. He greeted me with a friendly approach and smile,

although his Currys T-Shirt needed tucking into his trousers and was not wearing a name badge.

I told him I was looking for an entertainment PC, pretty much repeating my story. “We don’t stock PCs,” he said, not exactly knowing why. Trying to retrieve the situation, he offered Windows Media Centre was a good package to have within Windows, referring me to its sister company, PC World.

Whilst l appreciated his honesty, I would have hoped the store would have had some product choice at least.

MY FIRST impression was the store needed a clean and stock was cramped together in what looked like an old fashioned layout. I looked around and found a salesperson to ask for help, overhearing the conversation drawing to a close with her customer.

The sales girl pointed to the HP S3330UK, and told me the machine boasted Windows Vista Premium and therefore had Windows Media Centre. She explained this could be used to store music, play slide shows and create albums, as well as transfer and edit digital footage.

It had a dedicated graphics card for games, a 320GB hard drive, AMD Athlon 64x2 processor, 2GB RAM, a 15-in-one media slot, the ability to play and record DVDs and CDs, six USB ports and a wireless keyboard. It looked attractive, compact and was priced £314.99.

I would however need to buy a monitor at an additional cost of £149.99 and I might need Microsoft Office, she added putting another £59.98 on the price.

I also wanted to watch TV on my PC, I threw into the mix. The Hauppauge USB Card came up again, priced £49.99 – this sales person knew her stuff!

To finish off, she wrote all prices on notepaper for my reference and also listed additional costs that I might incur. For example, a recovery disc priced £14.99 and Windows Live priced £14.99.

Good all round service from a knowledgeable sales person. If I was actually out to by a PC, I would have bought it from here.

WITH TESCO taking the High Street by storm, we thought that it would be a good idea to compare available options from this high profile, price conscious retailer.

After a bit of a walk to the hardware section, past the satellite navigation devices, radios and other electronic gizmos on route, I got to the PC area.

No-one was around to ask, so I waited in the cue at the service desk for about ten minutes. After a while, an assistant came to help me.

With a £600 budget, what could he offer? There was only one tower on display, the Medion Q6600 3GB tower unit with Blu-ray, priced £499.00. It came with a Nvidia Geforce 9300GS graphics card, 1TB hard drive, 3GB RAM, six USB Ports, Windows Vista Home Premium, Intel Core 2 Quad, a card reader, TV Tuner

and a 60 day trial for Microsoft Office 2007.

This sounded like a fantastic package, although I would have to buy a LG W1934-S 19-inch TFT monitor, bringing the total to £598.99. I guess I can’t really complain as it was just right for my budget.

The salesperson had done a good job telling me about it, but could he demo it; I asked. He couldn’t show me the benefits of Windows Media Centre due to a technical problem. Nevertheless, he convinced me it would be a good machine; just a pity there wasn’t more choice.

Overall, this was a fantastic shopping experience – price offering good, sales person listened to my needs and gave fantastic customer attention.

SCORE: 3/10

SCORE: 8/10

SCORE: 7/10 www.pcretailmag.com

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DISTRIBUTOR BUSINESS HOURS

Xmas Opening Times

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Telephone 0870 011 1747

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PCRetail December 63

A KISS BETWEEN THE EARS

“...these completely revolutionize the listening experience.”

- Nate Lanxon, CNET “A few months ago I fell in love... and it was with a set of earphones.”

- Tom Wiggins, Stuff TV “The reason God created credit cards...”

- Stuart Hood, FHM

47 INDUST GLOWING REVIEWS Shure SE Sound Isolating

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Earphones. For more information visit www.Shure.co.uk

For more information contact your account manager on 01279 822822 or visit www.gem.co.uk

©2008 Shure Incorporated

The Innovations Design and Engineering Award is based upon descriptive materials submitted to the judges. CEA did not verify the accuracy of any submission or of any claims made and did not test the item to which the award was given.

DISTRIBUTOR BUSINESS HOURS

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Christmas Closing Times December 25th 2008 to January 1st 2009

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PCRetail December 65

DISTRIBUTOR BUSINESS HOURS

widget

66 PCRetail December

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“Think Attach”

with every laptop sale by adding a notebook case and accessory!!

CN31 | Notebook Case The classic Targus notebook case, designed for laptops with screen sizes of up to 15.4” Stylish and lightweight make this case the perfect companion to carry basic accessories and laptop.

SRP: £20

TSS057EU | Laptop Skin This Targus laptop skin will protect laptops from any small damages. This notebook sleeve is made of durable elastic neoprene that expands to hold laptops snugly.

Simple, clean design, can be used on its own or slipped inside another bag. Fits laptops with screen sizes of up to 15.4” SRP: £15

AEM0702EU | Portable Speaker Book

Don’t be fooled by its size, the portable speaker book guarantees high quality sound for pure audio pleasure despite its small form factor. It is especially designed for mobility as it folds flat for travel to enhance life on the go. The speaker book is powered by USB or battery and is compatible with any audio source that has a 3.5mm headphone jack. This means it can be connected to laptop computers, MP3 players or CD players and can be used for business presentations, playing music or watching DVDs. SRP: £25

AVC05EU | USB 2.0 Micro Webcam with microphone This Micro Webcam with integrated microphone guarantees unlimited fun for pure online conversation pleasure. It is especially designed to fit in any pocket and enhance life on the go. This makes the camera an ideal companion for staying in touch with family and friends on business trips or holidays.

SRP: £25,-

TSB116EU | SonicPak™ The fun and functional SonicPak™ backpack integrates a quality sound speaker in a sporty laptop case.. Just connect the speaker to a MP3, CD/DVD, laptop or other digital device to share your music. Three AA batteries provide up to 100 hours* of continuous listening time, while the water resistant panel and durable materials help to protect against the elements.

Fits laptops with screen sizes of up to 15.4” SRP: £60

CL101 Leather Attaché Notebook Case This Leather Attaché Case combines elegance and functionality, and is meticulously hand crafted from luxurious leather.

It provides the perfect solution for executives on the move who refuse to compromise on quality and style Fits laptops with screen sizes of up to 15.4” SRP: £100

APA01EU Home/Office 90W Laptop Power Adapter & Digital Accessory Powering System The AC Notebook Power Adapter is the ideal secondary / replacement power solution for mobile users. Utilising an interchangeable intelligent tip system, this power adapter is compatible with all major notebook brands and will provide up to 90W continuous power. Combined with our Accessory Powering System, it can simultaneously charge or power your mobile phone or PDA (via separately sold tips) thereby eliminating the need to carry extra bulky power adapters or chargers SRP: £80

Make great margin with Targus!

Call you distributor for more information and purchase prices Computer 2000 Tel 0870 0603344 computer2000.co.uk

Ingram Micro Tel: 0870 166 0160 uk.ingrammicro.com

Westcoast Tel: 0118 912 6000 westcoast.co.uk

LAPTOP BAGS AND ACCESSORIES

Accessorise The Credit Crunch, which has caused so many problems elsewhere, has seen a mobile PC sales boom, with robust growth in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. These heightened sales are likely to spark greater demand for their associated accessories.

Matt Grainger takes a look at some of the devices that the forward thinking retailer can stock to take advantage of the trend towards mobility…

Laptop and portable accessories are big business these days. They nearly always offer higher margins in percentage terms than the devices themselves.

Ian Dunbar, Meroncourt

www.pcretailmag.com

ales of mobile PCs have boomed recently and it is clear that the laptop and netbook segments have been the driving force behind the PC market over the last few months. At the end of October, US quarterly laptop sales overtook desktop for the first time, claiming 55.2 per cent of total PC sales with a record 9.2 million units sold, according to research firm IDC. “The laptop and notebook accessories market is experiencing rapid growth at the moment and we believe that this is set to continue for the foreseeable future,” comments Ian Dunbar, operations officer at Meroncourt. “The growth is partly due to the large numbers of these products that are being given away as incentives to sign mobile phone and broadband contracts and partly because people want the flexibility to use a computer at various locations.”

“We see three dynamics driving the market at the moment,” observes Logitech’s UK and Ireland

S

regional director Yehia Oweiss. “Firstly, people are increasingly turning to notebooks in preference to the desktop computer – notebook shipments are tipping above desktop shipments across Europe.

“Secondly, most people spend their time on their notebook computer in and around the home – home mobility is an important and often overlooked trend that defines the kind of products people look for. Finally, the notebook computer has some inherent limitations, which peripherals can resolve such as small, low screens, cramped keyboards, tiny touchpads and low-quality speakers.”

With such a shift in consumption patterns, it would be imprudent to overlook the potential for the laptop accessories segment.

Unlike desktop computers, most laptops do not usually ship with all the peripherals as part of a bundle; instead optional accessories can be bundled

PCRetail December 69

LAPTOP BAGS AND ACCESSORIES

up as an extra incentive by the retailer, or alternatively provide an additional margin.

“Customers increase their spend in a shop when they see the benefits of a notebook product within easy reach, and which is easily affordable at the time of purchasing a notebook computer or shortly afterwards,” says Oweiss. “We see bags, mice and

numeric keypads being bought at the time of purchase, while webcams, USB hubs, speakers, stands and headsets tend to be bought shortly afterwards. However, there is clearly a growing trend to buying numerous peripherals at the time of purchasing a notebook PC.” “Laptop and portable accessories are big business

these days,” concludes Dunbar. “They nearly always offer higher margins in percentage terms than the devices themselves. An increasing amount of people are using laptops for extended periods as replacements for desktop PCs, and very often they’ll buy a wide range of accessories to complement their new or existing laptop.”

KEY PRODUCTS (1) Ultra Small Bluetooth 2.1 USB Adapter Interactive Ideas RRP: £15.99

(3) Trust Street Style Messenger Bag Interactive Ideas RRP: £15.99

This ultra-small device adds Bluetooth wireless connectivity to any laptop or desktop PC. Upgraded design and components mean that the device offers an extended range of 25 metres and a sevenfold improvement in pairing times. Its gold-plated design results in high performance and an error free connection and the device can be plugged in without having to restart the PC.

This stylish, weatherproof bag features a protective soft padded notebook compartment and zipperlocked front and back pockets to store laptop peripherals, mobile phones, digital music players, documents or stationary. The Street Style Messenger Bag can fit notebooks with screens up to 15.4 inches.

2

1

(2) 120W and 70W Ultra Slimline Multi Function Power Adapter Interactive Ideas RRP: £62.99 (120W), £78.99 (70W) With business increasingly being done on the move, Trust has developed a range of versatile laptop power adapters. These highly compact, slimline and efficient devices adapt power for use in the car or while on a plane. Compatible with almost every major notebook brand, the automatic voltage switching provides the correct power output without any manual adjustments and the devices can be used to recharge an iPod, SatNav or mobile phone.

3

6 (4) Retractable Mouse Computer 2000 RRP: £9.99 This handy device offers a versatile solution to the laptop user on the move. Powered by USB connection, its retractable cable stays untangled, stays out of the way and can be quickly stowed away. The device is compatible with a variety of operating systems including Windows 2000, XP and Vista, Mac OSX and Linux.

4

(5) Mini Laptop Carrying Case Enta Technologies RRP: £14.99 Made with durable neoprene, this laptop carrying case protects the device from impacts or scratching in any environment. The design features a detachable strap, and exterior pockets provide extra storage for peripherals.

5 (6) ‘Whatever it takes’ laptop sleeve GEM RRP: £19.99 21st Century Leaders Foundation and its Whatever It Takes campaign have teamed up with Exspect to bring a range of celebrity endorsed peripherals to retail. The campaign is to create and sustain charitable projects that tackle key global development issues including poverty alleviation, environmental conservation and the protection of children and has gathered artworks from an extraordinary group of over 600 celebrity leaders representing each artist’s ‘message of hope’ for the future.

70 PCRetail December

www.pcretailmag.com

LAPTOP BAGS AND ACCESSORIES

(7) KINETIK 15.4 Briefcase Computer 2000 RRP: £49.90

(9) V550 Nano cordless laser mouse for notebooks GEM RRP: £39.99

Ideal for the professional user, the Briefcase protects a notebook with a lightweight exo-shell casing and padded sleeve. Expanding compartments provide easy access to the PC and other assets. Additional cargo bays and convenience pockets supply structured storage for any other valuables or peripherals.

8

(8) Z5 USB Speakers Computer 2000 RRP: £69.99

7

The V550 Nano provides an innovative addition to the laptop mouse sector with its easy-to-attach Clip and Go mouse dock that can be used with any notebook and its ultra-compact receiver is so small that it can be left in a port even when the laptop safely stowed in a bag. With up to 18 months of battery life, hyperfast scrolling and highly accurate tracking on any surface, the V550 is made for mobility.

9

Most laptops carry a pretty poor audio experience as standard, despite increasing numbers of them being able to support games.

Logitech aims to fill this niche with the Z5 speaker system. Powered through a USB connection, its omnidirectional acoustic technology provides great sound throughout the room. The Z5 is compatible with both PCs and Macs.

(12) QuickCam Pro for Notebook GEM RRP: £69.99 (10) Ceylon Messenger Bag Enta Technologies RRP: £34.99

This high definition camera features a twomegapixel sensor that can display images up to eight megapixels and its RightLight 2 technology automatically adjusts to allow for varying light levels. The glass lens was designed in collaboration with Carl Zeiss, the global leader in camera optics and its premium autofocus guarantees razor sharp imagery. The camera comes bundled with HP’s Photosmart Essential photo editing software.

10

Slim, lightweight and stylish the Ceylon Bag has multiple compartments, providing plenty of room for your laptop and accessories, and even has a concealed holder for an umbrella or water bottle. It has a soft plush inner lining to protect a laptop from scratches, but without adding extra weight to the bag. The bag has easy to use magnetic enclosures so there are no fiddly buckles or zips to contend with and a hidden handle is incorporated for those occasions when it is more convenient to carry the bag at knee level. The Ceylon Messenger Bag comes in a range of colours to suit all tastes – black/light grey, dark grey/light blue and dark grey/lavender.

12

(11) Laptop Cooling Hub Enta Technologies RRP: £32.99

11

72 PCRetail December

The growing processor power of laptops has meant that provisions increasingly have to be made to keep the device from overheating. The unique design of Belkin’s laptop cooling hub improves airflow underneath the laptop, which is then further improved by a high-capacity cooling fan.

The hub provides an additional four USB ports and an optional power supply for external hard drives.

www.pcretailmag.com

Award Winning W52 Series TFT Widescreen with a wow factor!

Stretch your view with these wide format monitors from LG. Users can increase productivity with increased screen real estate allowing multi tasking by utilising the additional working area. There is no other monitor in the market that is more diverse, versatile, or elegant than the LG FLATRON... we have yet to invent it.

19", 22" and 24" LCD Monitor with tilt design Widescreen with 10,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 2ms response time, DVI connection and ez zooming.

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Multi function USB sticks Carry your data in style!

The coolest way to store and move your data. You can now store and transport documents, pictures, presentations, music and video files quickly and easily. Reliable performance and robust security features make LG Memory devices the best solution for your digital lifestyle.

LG USB Mobile Charger Flash Drive • Compact, lightweight USB flash & USB mobile phone Charger in 1 • Able to charge most LG, Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson mobile phones • No external power or battery needed • Up to 8GB of storage capacity • High speed USB-2 connection

LG Vaccine USB Flash Drive

LG Fingerprint Flash Drive

LG Xtick Mirror

• Full Anti-Virus Solution / Worm / Spyware / Adware built onto the USB stick • Plug in and its ready to scan automatically • Automatically updates with the latest software • No conflict with other Anti Virus Software • Up to 8GB of storage capacity

• Biometric fingerprint protection (Up to 10 fingerprints) • Secures critical data, only the correct fingerprint(s) can access the drive • Additional password protection option • USB-2 connection and retractable design • Up to 8GB storage capacity

• A fusion of style and technology with this reflective silver design • USB-2 connection • Neck strap included • Up to 4GB of storage capacity

Visit ccidistribution.co.uk for real time stock availability and pricing.

LG M4 USB Flash Drive

LG Mini Mirror Retractable

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• Ultra compact design Measuring only 30mm(L) x 17mm(W) x 7mm(H) • Retractable USB-2 connection • Stylish reflective silver finish • Up to 4GB of storage capacity • 2 year warranty

Compact size, lightweight and glossy black finish USB-2 connection Up to 8GB of storage capacity Perfect entry-level USB flash drive 2 year warranty

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• Storage • Tape Media • Multimedia Backup • Networking • Flash Media • Communication and much more...

LAPTOP BAGS AND ACCESSORIES

(13) CN-516 Micro Bluetooth USB Adapter Meroncourt RRP: £8.99

(15) Snappy Mobile USB Mouse Meroncourt RRP: £4.99

The CN-516 allows the user to create a Bluetooth connection between a notebook and any wireless peripheral. Its Bluetooth 2.0 standard enables higher transfer speeds up to 3Mbps and makes new multitasking applications such as file sharing and printing possible simultaneously, within a wireless range of ten meters. The CN-516 is backwards compatible and has a low power consumption, which makes this USB adapter perfectly suitable for 13 mobile users. Due to its ultra compact format, the adapter can always stay plugged into a notebook.

With a compact design that is perfect for notebooks, the Snappy Mouse features an intensive colour and blue backlit scrollwheel, making it a real eyecatcher on any desktop. The high-resolution 800 dpi optical sensor ensures precise and fluid scanning and the device does not require the installation of any drivers, ensuring true plug and play functionality.

(16) Explorer Mini Mouse GEM RRP: £49.99

(14) Port Ergostation and 4 port USB hub Interactive Ideas RRP: £49.99 Designed to relieve neck, back or shoulder problems, the Port Ergostation has four adjustable positions, allowing the user to get the position just right. The Ergostation also comes with a four port USB 2.0 hub, which provides a universal docking solution.

17

This mouse pairs revolutionary tracking technology with a sophisticated design that brings it to life. A chrome trim and blue lighting around the bottom rim of the mouse create a soft glow and sets the device apart from anything else on the market. A right-handed, ergonomic design offers hours of comfortable use, and the 2.4GHz wireless technology delivers a reliable connection up to 30 feet away. The snap-in minitransceiver offers easy storage and mobility, allowing consumers to take their full-size mouse with them wherever 16 they need it.

15

(17) SL-6000 Notebook Bag Meroncourt RRP: £8.99 This elegant notebook case has been designed for 15-inch and most 15.4-inch notebooks. Made from hard-wearing nylon, the case protects the notebook from damage caused by bumps. The main compartment is particularly well padded. An additional front compartment offers space for mobile phones, CDs, pens or business cards.

Targus sales director Sean O’Brien keeps an eye on accessories...

What developments has Targus observed in the laptop market?

The laptop overtook the desktop PC last year and ever since then sales in laptop have been increasing at the expense of desktops. Whereas desktops show a minor growth figure, notebooks continue their 35 per cent plus year on year growth.

In the notebook sector, the netbooks have taken a significant share in a very short time.

Favourably priced, they give consumers the freedom to go online and surf the

74 PCRetail December

net wherever they want, without the need to carry along a heavy laptop.

The trend for 2008 has definately been the netbook – ultra small and ultra light laptops specifically targeted at the consumer market. There seems to be only minimal cannibalization of these netbooks on laptop sales, making this is a great opportunity for additional margin.

Do you think retailers are taking advantage of the peripherals sector?

Where margins on laptops have been minimised over the years, peripherals always have been the key to generating a healthy margins for the retailer.

Unfortunately attach rates in retail vary at around 15 to 20 per cent, meaning that there is a great opportunity for the retailer to increase that number and ensure a healthy margin for their business.

Targus emphasizes the need to educate the customer, and focus on good value product. Selling an entry level notebook case might be a quick and easy sale, but it’s a missed chance to increase the margin and chances are the customer would be very

interested in the features that mid to high range notebook cases would offer them.

What can retailers do to maximise the potential of peripherals?

Targus has incorporated a ‘Think Attach’ campaign and logo to create awareness among retailers of the benefits of selling peripherals with the laptop.

Customers are going to need a laptop sleeve or carry case to either carry around or store their laptop safely, as well as a mouse for extended use.

Why not sell it while you have the customer in your store? When retailers do not sell these products along with the sale of a laptop, they will most definitely be purchased at a later point in time, the chances are that this will be elsewhere.

Power is one of the categories where Targus sees an ever increasing demand. People using their work laptop at home purchase a universal power supply, so they don’t have to carry the heavy accessory along. Targus also offers power adapters with ‘APS’ which enables the charging of mobile phones, PDAs’ and portable gaming devices, at home or in the car.

www.pcretailmag.com

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TWINNED SECURITY

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At last a new unique offer for Resellers and Consultants never available before in the UK Make 40 to 70% profit Our adapted technology allows all resellers and consultants to become IPbackup providers/operators themselves at a stroke, in full security with NO investments, and a guaranteed revenue.

The offer that you would make to your customers will make a lot of sense to them:

Backs up & Duplicates Data to its Remote Twin Automatically

You install an IDSbox backup server in your customer’s office. It backs up automatically all workstations and servers data as well as images of their environments.

It then makes a remote copy of the data via internet to a second IDSbox in your office in full security.

You could also install the second IDSbox at the SMB owner’s home!

They have their local backups at their fingertips In case of major disaster you bring the second IDSbox, connect it to their office LAN and hit restore after crash. The entire PC and server configurations including applications and data will be restored in record time!

You sign the contract with your customers, you retain full control and your customer loyalty and satisfaction is enhanced, so you enhance their and your own business continuity.

You charge 70£/month to your customer (eg for 300Gb) for the whole service, which costs on average 10 times less than comparable offers in the market.

If you have 15 customers you earn £ 43,200 guaranteed in 3 yrs!

Please contact

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LapCabby-IT

Laptop Charging & Media Storage Units

DeskCabby Pop Up Desk New Model

• Secure flat screen monitor and keyboard storage • Accommodates up to a 19" flat screen monitor • Maximise use of desktop • Lockable CPU compartment for added security • Cantilever frame to maximise leg space W900 to 1200 x D740 x H720mm

New Model LapCabbyMini 20 bay ultra mobile charging unit for new small form factor laptops W585 x D480 x H1110mm

LapCabby10V 10 bay laptop charging unit W585 x D480 x H1110mm

LapCabby20V 20 bay laptop charging unit W920 x D480 x H1110mm

LapCabby16V 16 bay laptop charging unit W920 x D480 x H1110mm

LapCabbyV

Frame Colours

Red

Blue

Grey Black

LapCabby16H 16 bay double sided W870 x D670 x H1000mm

This laptop trolley is designed to house either 10, 16 or 20 laptops stored in their own individual vertical compartmens complete with rubber matting for added protection. The 10V simply plugs into any single 13amp socket while the 16V and 20V plug into any double 13amp socket. Each unit comes complete with an integrated power board into which the laptop ac adaptor is plugged. This means there is no restriction on the type of laptop or ac adaptor which can be used. The power board is located within a lockable compartment in the base of the unit and is complete with air vents for the reduction of excess heat produced when charging.

MediaCabby Multi media storage trolley for a projector, amplifier, DD,VCR, and speakers with integrated power.

W685 x D570 x H1000mm

LapCabby32H 32 bay double sided W870 x D670 x H1116mm

Visit the Monarch stand * Equipment in the pictures is not supplied and for image purpose only.

A90 at the BETT 09 exhibition

COMPANY PROFILE: SAPPHIRE

Crystal

clear

…with a little help from our friends Sapphire has been ATi’s number one partner since the day it was founded. Matt Grainger talks to the firm’s Northern Europe sales manager Neil Spicer and ATi’s worldwide vice president of sales at AMD’s GPU division John Byrne…

It has been an exciting 18 months for ATi. Our commitment is to continue working with Sapphire and our other partners to drive the market share even further.

John Byrne, AMD

www.pcretailmag.com

apphire is a graphics vendor that designs, manufactures and distributes an extensive range of ATi-based video cards and motherboards, from affordable graphics platform solutions to cutting edge gaming experiences. Over time, the firm has become ATi’s largest and best performing global partner.

From its foundation, Sapphire had a global, ATifocused outlook with a worldwide team that to this day incorporates a high proportion of former ATi employees, ensuring that Sapphire has retained a good knowledge of their products, customers and market.

In 2001, ATi abandoned its exclusive manufacturing model and decided to take the route of having board partners. As soon as this new route to the market was announced, Sapphire CEO and founder K D Au seized the opportunity to create a new brand of graphics cards, working in partnership with a fabrication company called PC Partners, and rapidly focused on bringing products to market.

“We set up sales channels, logistical hubs and support centres all around the world. This meant that Sapphire was first to market with the ‘new ATi era’,” comments Sapphire’s sales manager for Northern

S

Europe, Neil Spicer.

“Since then we have solely focused our attention on ATi GPU products. Sapphire became the largest of the ATi partners very quickly and has remained number one ever since by a considerable margin.

This means that ATi looks to Sapphire to drive new products into the market. For example, right now we are having phenomenal success with the new 4000 series of products from ATi. These products have eaten heavily into the Nvidia market share and Sapphire is at the forefront of bringing these products to the market.”

“Sapphire is globally a long-term strategic partner for AMD. It carries huge demand from end users, etailers, distributors, resellers and system builders so we often work with it on bringing products to market,” says ATi’s worldwide vice president of sales for AMD’s GPU division, John Byrne.

“For instance, Sapphire will be first to market the new 4850 X2 at the start of November. This means we focus and work hand in hand with partners like Sapphire to sell and market our range of technology.

From an Add-In-Board (AIB) partner environment we believe less is more. Our partners realise this, with all of them bringing something unique to the market.”

“Our business is orientated around ATi technology.

PCRetail December 77

COMPANY PROFILE: SAPPHIRE

So if the guys over at ATi do not produce competitive products then we are limited to the success available to us,” continues Spicer.

“We are one of the very few sole source AIB’s, which mean we only sell ATi-based products. This gives us a clear direction and cooperation with ATi, as the company knows we want to win as much as it does. ATi has had a tough few years, however right now it is really becoming strong again. There have been many polls that have asked end users what VGA solution they would buy now, with the majority asking for ATi. It is then our job to continue making sure those people are buying Sapphire.”

With ATi’s latest series of graphic cards performing very well on the market, Sapphire has a clear goal of maintaining its position as the biggest and the best of ATi’s partners.

“We have a huge chunk of market still available to us which we are now clearly focused on winning. ATi has now brought to us new and exciting products that have heavily influenced the market trend and here at Sapphire we are focused on working with ATi to develop this market share even further,” says Spicer.

“However, we cannot lose sight of the other ATi partners, whose aim it is to dislodge Sapphire from the top spot; this is why we always try and stay ahead of the game. Right now we are working on new cooling solutions. We have brought some really interesting products to the market over the past few years, including a vapor chamber solution, a range of insanely over-clocked products, and much more. We will continue to focus on driving new products into the range, while not forgetting the need to keep producing competitive affordable low end and mainstream solutions.”

“Here at ATi, our mindset is changing from being a follower to a leader,” says Byrne. “The great news is we have now have price/performance leadership in all segments of the GFX market, which was highlighted in the recently

John Byrne: “Sapphire is a long-term strategic partner for AMD”

78 PCRetail December

published Q3 results from Jon Peddie Research.

This has shown an almost 23 per cent growth-year on-year for AMD in the GPU space.

“We are delighted to report significant share gains at OEMs in both desktop and mobile which ultimately has an effect on what the local channel buys. Our channel market share has also seen a massive improvement recently and we hope that this continues.”

So what does the future hold?

“We have just completed a successful launch of a top to bottom series of products with the 4000 series. The recently launched 4870 X2 is wildly recognized as being the fastest GPU product in the market,” says Byrne.

“All of our new products are loaded with technology such as DirectX, despite loud claims from our competitor that there was no advantage to such a technology. Well, the reality is now upon us. With the release of the Stalker Clear Sky DirectX 10.1 patch, AMD has further demonstrated its leadership in GPU technology.

This patch makes our DirectX 10.1 products look better and run faster compared to the DirectX 10 version of the game.

“It has been an exciting 18 months for ATi. As to what is next, we would ask you to enjoy the award winning HD4000 series first. Our commitment is to continue working with Sapphire and our other partners to drive the ATi market share even higher.”

Spicer says: “We do have an eye on AMD’s Fusion, because that will impact how solutions are sold in the future. Right now however we are having great success throughout the ATi range.

“One success is DirectX 10.1 which is now becoming a demanded technology. The latest games all support DirectX for more realistic game play and it has been rumored in the on-line press that Microsoft’s new version of Windows operating system will also take advantage of this technology giving users with DirectX compliant hardware (all Sapphire HD4000 series boards) a faster, more compelling user experience.”

“We are going to continue to drive exciting solutions into our range and have partnered with some of the leading cooling design companies in the world to enhance this. Our focus and commitment to taking the Sapphire brand to gamers can be seen at any LAN events, online review sites, paper press and trade publications. If you are buying ATi, you are buying Sapphire.”

Neil Spicer

We set up sales channels, logistical hubs and support centres all around the world. This meant that Sapphire was first to market with the new ATi era.

Neil Spicer Sapphire

Sapphire and ATi work well together to bring users highly regarded products like this

www.pcretailmag.com

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INDIE PROFILE

FACT BOX Year established: 1998

Complete Computing SW

Number of outlets: One

This month, sees Roger Humm talking to Colin Baglow of long established Brigantia Computer Expert’s member Complete Computing SW...

CCSW is the largest, and longest established, independent computer solutions provider in North Devon. Based in retail premises at the heart of Bideford, CCSW has been trading since the business was founded by Colin Baglow in 1998.

Baglow is a great believer in trade bodies and belongs not only to Brigantia Computer Experts but also to the FSB and the PCA. He is also the chairman of a local networking group called the Business Lounge.

The shop is stocked with over six hundred product lines from supportive Brigantia Associate member vendors such as AMD, ATi, Belkin, BullGuard, Inkrite, Intel, Microsoft, Netgear, Nvidia, Trust and Ubuntu. The shop contains a cyber café and an IT repair centre. In addition to this, a full outcall service is available to both SMBs and consumers within the North Devon area. Baglow also points to its extensive use of remote support to many of its database of over two thousand customers. The business side also caters for server client networks and

all solutions can be offered on full flexible leasing terms through Brigantia Associate service providers Grenke Leasing and Red Arrow. Consumer finance is also offered through online service provider able2buy which was recently taken over and put under new professional management.

Baglow has created a fun atmosphere in the shop by providing in store entertainment with a fish tank, slot machine and a seating area with drinks and snacks available. Thinking outside the box makes coming to the shop a nice, friendly and welcoming experience to amuse customers while they wait, shop or browse. Many local people also use other services provided including photocopying and fax facilities.

CCSW currently employs five members of staff who all seem very happy. “We have a happy team who enjoy working in the environment we provide and I like to believe that I am a fair boss who understands their needs; one even brings his dog to work with him.”

DIARY DATES 2008/9

Baglow pointed out that over the last couple of years, in line with most Brigantia Computer Experts, he has been building up his b-2-b side. During this period he has changed the mix to 25/75 per cent business/consumer, which he feels will help them through the lean times caused by the ongoing Credit Crunch. Baglow adds that they encourage customer loyalty, as he believes this equates to long term profitability.

CCSW like to do its bit for their local community and they collect for seven different charities and are also active in fund raising for local primary schools. We are committed to the carbon footprint campaigns and approximately 75 per cent of our trade waste is recycled.

Finally, Baglow told me about CCSW’s sister company Host County, which provides professional hosting and web design solutions for SMBs as well as personal websites for consumers. Baglow sees a great future for both CCSW and Host County over the coming years.

Number of staff: Five Regular vendor lines: AMD, ATi, Belkin, BullGuard, Inkrite, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, Trust and Ubuntu Contact name and address: Colin Baglow, 43 Old Town, Bideford, North Devon EX39 3BH Telephone number: 01237 478012 Email: sales@cc-sw.co.uk Website: www.cc-sw.co.uk

The channel’s calendar is full of important events. Here are some upcoming highlights…

JANUARY 2009

the sector during the three days.

It includes the prestigous BETT Awards event.

plays host to the year’s first social event of the PCA calendar, the conference dinner.

CES 2009 January 8th Las Vegas Quite simply, one of the biggest and possibly the most extravagant events in the industry calendar returns to one of the most lavish cities in the world.. Put the two together and you have CES 2009.

Expect major announcements aplenty as almost all of the biggest vendors in the world use the event to launch their latest products in front of the world’s media and every influential retail buyer.

FEBRUARY 2009

MARCH 2009

DISTREE EMEA February 9th – 12th Monte Carlo The channel event linking the whole of the EMEA channel, from the southern tip of Africa, right the way across to the Alaskan coast of Russia, and of course the UK and Western Europe, returns and this time it’s taking place in the swanky Monte Carlo. It caters for everyone in the channel, from the vendor and distributor, right the way through to end users.

CeBIT 2009 March 3rd – 8th Hannover Fair, Hannover, Germany CeBIT is one of the world’s largest technology exhibitions where every major vendor shows off their big hopes for 2009 in the consumer and business IT channels.

BETT 2009 January 14th London Olympia Now in its 23rd year, BETT is the must attend event for anyone involved in the educational side of ICT. With over 600 educational suppliers exhibiting, including some of the biggest names in the channel, and 27,000 visitors, the event promises to showcase the major developments within

PCA Northern Conference and OGM February 17th Warrington The PCA heads to Warrington for its annual northern conference and OGM. Last year’s event saw Dell detail to the UK channel for the first time the details of its UK partner programme, and this year is likely to have just as big a highlight, if not bigger. The event also

PC Retail Awards 2009 March 19th The Palace Suite, Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London The PC Retail Awards return for a second year after a hugely successful inaugural event in March. With all the categories from the 2008 event – and the addition of the new Industry Achievement Award – the 2009 ceremony is set to be the social event of the year for anyone involved in the PC retail sector, and a well deserved celebration for the nominees.

If you would like to promote your event, please contact andrew.wooden@intentmedia.co.uk This information is believed to be correct, but potential visitors should confirm details with show organisers before making arrangements to attend

80 PCRetail December

www.pcretailmag.com

MOVE TO MIDDLE-EARTH...

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

O F F I C I A L E X PA N S I O N T O T H E C R I T I C A L LY A C C L A I M E D P C G A M E O F T H E Y E A R * T H E L O R D O F T H E R I N G S O N L I N E TM : S H A D O W S O F A N G M A R TM !

01279 822822

FOR MORE GAME INFORMATION VISIT TM

www.lotro-europe.com

THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™ interactive video game © 2008 Turbine, Inc. and patents pending. All rights reserved. Middle-Earth Poster Map © 2007 The Saul Zaentz Company, d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises (SZC), under license to Turbine, Inc. All rights reserved. “The Lord of the Rings Online”, “Mines of Moria”, “Shadows of Angmar”, The Watcher logo, “Conquer the World Beneath”, “The Lord of the Rings”, and the names of the characters, events, items and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SZC under license to Turbine, Inc. Turbine and the Turbine logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Turbine, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other jurisdictions. Codemasters is a registered trademark owned by The Codemasters Software Company Limited and the Codemasters Online Gaming logo is a trademark owned by The Codemasters Software Company Limited. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. *‘PC game of the year’ XXV golden Joystick awards 2007.

GAMES

Game of the Month PRINCE OF PERSIA Distributor: Trilogy Available: December 5th Price: £34.99 Renown for its innovative use of time, the Prince of Persia series has fast become one of the top gaming franchises of the last five years.

In his latest adventure, the Prince finds himself forced to flee to a deserted kingdom that seemingly offers sanctuary.

However, not long after he

UBISOFT arrives, he finds it has already been touched by the corruption and so begins a new quest filled with adventure, challenges and intrigues.

Gamers will get the opportunity to fight their way through the hoardes of enemies and make quick use of the now trademark time control gameplay of the series.

Prince of Persia is likely to be the big release of this December.

COMING SOON

It’s the month of giving and receiving. We’re giving you the list of upcoming releases and your receiving vital business information. Enjoy!

DECEMBER

GENRE

PUBLISHER

TELEPHONE

DISTRIBUTOR

Damnation

TITLE

Shooter

Codemasters

01279 822 822

Gem

December 2008

DATE

N.A.R.C

Action

Zoo Digital

01279 822 822

Gem

December 2008

Prince of Persia

Action/Adventure

Ubisoft

0845 456 6400

Trilogy

December 2008

Evolution

Action

Lexicon

0114 258 2255

Open

December

Jumpgate

Action

Codemasters

01279 822 822

Gem

Q4 2008

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Action

Vivendi

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

Q4 2008

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria

Action

Codemasters

01279 822 822

Gem

Q4 2008

Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising

FPS

Codemasters

01279 822 822

Gem

Q4 2008

Rise of the Argonauts

Action

Codemasters

01279 822 822

Gem

Q4 2008

Tiberium

Action

EA

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

Q4 2008

Tom Clancy's HAWX

Action

Ubisoft

0845 456 6400

Trilogy

Q4 2008

Aion: Tower of Eternity

MMO

Ncsoft

01273 872160

Pinnacle

2008

Blood Bowl

Sport/Action

Ascaron

020 8309 3934

Pinnacle

2008

Fever Frenzy

Action

505 Games

0121 506 9590

Advantage

2008

Hei$t

Action

Codemasters

01279 822 822

Gem

2008

Hogs of War 2

Strategy

Atari

0121 506 9590

Advantage

2008

Jamster Allstars

Action

Atari

0121 5069590

Advantage

2008

Safari Adventures: Africa

Adventure

Blast

08452 344242

Open

2008

The Apprentice

Mini Games

505 Games

0121 506 9590

Advantage

2008

The Lord of the Rings: The White Council

Action

EA

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

2008

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction

FPS

Ubisoft

0845 4566400

Trilogy

2008

Bionic Commando

Action

Capcom

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

January 9 2009

Empire: Total War

RTS

Sega

020 8995 3399

Centresoft

February 6 2009

Motor Max

Action

City Interactive

020 8309 3600

Open

February 7 2009

The Sims 3

Life-simulation

EA

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

February 20 2009

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Action

Sega

020 8995 3399

Centresoft

Q1 2009

Alpha Protocol

Action

Sega

020 8995 3399

Centresoft

Q1 2009

Insecticide

Action/Adventure

Gamecock

0845 234 4242

CDV

2009

Pool Hall Pro

Sports

Playlogic

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

2009

Street Fighter IV

Fighting

Capcom

0121 625 3388

Centresoft

2009

The Wheelman

Action

Midway

0845 4566400

Trilogy

2009

This is Vegas

Action

Midway

0845 456 6400

Trilogy

2009

Velvet Assassin

Stealth/Action

Gamecock

0845 234 4242

CDV

2009

*ABC-certified distribution 102,010 Jan-Dec 05

ON THE RADAR

Tiberium Publisher: EA Centresoft: 0121 625 3388 Available: Q4 2008 Price: £34.99

Empire: Total War Publisher: Sega Centresoft: 0121 625 3388 Available: February 20th Price: £39.99

The Sims 3 Publisher: EA Centresoft: 0121 625 3388 Available: February 6th Price: £34.99

PLUG AND PLAY

This month, PC Retail takes on a distinctly photographic overtone as we get hands on with Nikon’s latest DSLR, the D90, and we test out Epson’s photo viewer, the P7000...

NIKON D90 DSLR

EPSON P7000

DSLR Camera Direktek: 01494 471 100 Price: £699.99 Body Only

Photo Viewer Swains Intl: 0845 450 4242 Price: £549.99

In terms of sensitivity, the ikon’s DSLR boffins have standard range provides ISO been busy over the last 200 to 3200 but a boosted year introducing a range range allows you to choose of new cameras, including the from ISO 100 to 6400. It’s not top end D3 and the D300 last until you get to ISO 1600 noise August, the D60 in January and becomes evident (and colour the FX D700 in July. leaches very slightly), but only And now, it has launched the just, at ISO 2000 noise is still well D90: a new DSLR with a DXcontrolled, better in fact than a sensor in a camera designed to typical digital compact at ISO fill the niche currently occupied 800. It’s not until you get to ISO by the D80, a superb camera in 4000 you could say noise is its own right. getting intrusive and at the Nikon has, it says, designed boosted ISO the new camera 6400 setting, for those trading Nikon has designed detail suffers up to a DSLR and noise is very from a compact the D90 for those plain in the and significantly, trading up to a DSLR shots. to provide the Nevertheless, more advanced from their current this is a superb photographer compact camera. performance for enough camera such a camera control and and one that means shooting quality to satisfy the more at ISO 1000 and higher holds no serious snappers. image noise disadvantages The most obvious change is a whatsoever and so, Nikon’s new CMOS, 12.3-megapixelclaim it’s a sensitivity sensor, piggy-backed by the performance akin to that of the most recent iteration of Nikon’s D300 holds true.

EXPEED image engine. It’s a The D90 is stuffed so full of combination that Nikon claims new kit and clever tweaks I will provide image quality akin could be here for another week to the superb D300. writing about them, suffice to Another key change is the say I’ve covered the major large, 920k-dot three-inch ones, but it is certainly no plain colour screen, a feature that upgrade, this a serious new has been filtered down from the camera in its own right and well D90’s higher specified brethren; worth consideration. it’s a cracker of an LCD to use.

N

control provides better his is the latest generation of handling, making it both easier Epson’s multimedia display and faster to scroll through devices and the Epson images or the simple menus.

P7000 Multimedia Photo Player In fact the P7000 is very easy takes what was undoubtedly an to use indeed, when powered already good product range up you have the initial set-up and adds a set of improvements adjusting the date and time for to make the kit even more example. If you’ve completed a tempting. shoot and want to offload The P7000 comes with a travel images from a memory card, pack that includes a custom copying images is simple. Insert carry case, a better battery the card, and a prompt asks if charger, a neat stand and you wish to microfibre It is capable of backup the files to cleaning cloth, the device or if along with displaying 94 per you want to protective film cent of Adobe’s browse the card. for the superb Viewing photos screen.

RBG colour space. is pretty much It’s true A monitor capable instantaneous however, the the larger new Epson of that would cost even images from the models, the around £2,000.

Nikon D90 I tested 80GB P6000 alongside the priced at P7000 appeared instantly. £449.99, and this, the 160GB The Epson P7000 Multimedia P7000, which costs £549.99, look Photo Viewer is a stunning bit of pricey. So what do you get for kit, even if it is on the expensive your cash? side. Those likely to use the thing Most obvious is the Epson a lot may want to invest in Photo Fine Premia LCD four-inch another battery.

LCD screen that’s capable of This is a well made and easy displaying 94 per cent of the to use storage and viewing Adobe RGB colour space device; I still feel a widescreen according to Epson: something display would make it even that’s very good indeed since a more attractive, but even so, it’s desktop display with that ability sure not to disappoint if you buy will cost the better part of £2,000. one since it’s just about the best Build quality is superb and the photo viewer on the market. addition of a new jog dial

T

GFK

WRITTEN BY: TRISTAN IRWIN, ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Looking to Christmas sales: the lessons of the software market Amid market uncertainty, Tristan Irwin, account executive at GfK, sees hope for retailers this Christmas. Sales of software packages could be the icing on the cake this year... ith ‘Back to School’ behind us, IT retailers now need to begin looking forward to the key Christmas period. While there is some market uncertainty driven by fears over the impact of the credit crunch, historically, GfK data suggests that from week 44 onwards the total UK durable goods market tends to show an eight per cent volume growth week on week, culminating in year high sales in week 52 as consumers rush to the postChristmas sales. While most product groups have shown a significant slowdown over the year to date, and indeed the market has seen negative growth for the past three months, there will likely be some uplift over Christmas, but such growth will be starting from a smaller base.

The IT sector is one of the few sectors which has bucked this trend. In terms of value the total IT market has performed encouragingly, up 7.6 per cent year to date versus last year. By far the best performing IT product has been the mobile PC, driven by the rise of the netbook, and the preponderance of subsidised laptop deals on the high street. Mobile PC sales have slowed somewhat in recent months, but still have shown 30 per cent volume growth year to date.

With mobile PC sales continuing to boom in retail channels, a large proportion of the rest of the IT sector is maintaining its position despite the clouds of economic uncertainty. When one looks at the sales of key product groups over the Back to School period this year a clear trend is evident, with key mobile centric products such as external hard drives, notebook mice, and security software following the same trends as laptop computers.

Retail boxed software in particular should prove to be a good indicator for the strength of the coming Christmas in the IT market. As you can see in the chart the key software segments in terms of pure volumes – security and office suites – follow a general trend in line with laptop sales. This suggests a relatively high attach rate at point of sale, with

W

86 PCRetail December

consumers naturally both taking advantage of promotional deals and wanting some software to use with on their new computer.

One should not underestimate the power of promotion either. When looking at the weekly sales volumes of office suites at the start of the Back to School period, following major high profile price reductions of key software lines in addition to long standing laptop deals in some of the major multiples, the segment doubled in volume in comparison to the average levels seen for the month previously, selling just over 26,000 units in week 35. Not only does such promotion benefit software sales, but in effect it

increases the consumers’ perception of the hardware those attached deals are being run in conjunction with, contributing to the value judgement all consumers make when they select the model they go home with.

While forecasting can never be an exact science, there is no suggestion as yet that we will not experience a strong Christmas for the software market. Though promotional activity will reduce the total sales value of the period somewhat, we can expect to see encouraging sales figures this Christmas to top off a strong year despite the difficult economic times.

www.pcretailmag.com

*From September 2008 data

HARDWARE CHARTS

GfK provides market research consultancy to manufacturers on the technologies markets and also operates a reseller partnership that provides market research information to dealers in the channel. For further information on GfK please contact Ami Brooks on tel: 0870 603 8247 or email: ami.brooks@gfk.com Models listed are non-exclusive: Neither sold as a tradebrand nor sold exclusively within one retailer or retail group

LAPTOPS

DISPLAYS

1

1

1

FSC

HP

LOGITECH

LOGITECH

AMILO LI2727

W1907V

967561-0120 CORDLESS DESKTOP

V220 CORDLESS OPTICAL MOUSE

2 SONY VGN-NR38M/S

2 SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 720N

2 MICROSOFT ZG6-00010 BLACK WIRED 500

2 TRUST WIRELESS OPTICAL MOUSE MI-4910D

3 HP PAVILION DV6920EA FM428EA

3 LG W2242S-SF

3 MICROSOFT B2L-00005 COMFORT CURVE

3 TRUST MI-2520P OPTICAL USB MINI MOUSE

4 SONY VAIO VGN-NR38E/S

4 SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 2232BW

4 LOGITECH 967653-0120 ULTRA FLAT

4 LOGITECH V220 CORDLESS OPTICAL MOUSE

5 ACER ASPIRE 5920G-6A2G25

5 HANNS.G HW-191D

5 KENSINGTON 1500109 VALUE KEYBOARD

5 MICROSOFT BX3-00020 WIRELESS NOTEBOOK

6 TOSHIBA A300-1J1

6 ACER V173B

6 MICROSOFT BV3-00007 WIRELESS OPTICAL

6 BELKIN BEU0309 USB NOTEBOOK OPTICAL

7 SONY VAIO VGN-NR32M/S

7 HP W2007V

7 LOGITECH 967738-0120 OEM

7 LOGITECH OPTICAL VALUE WHEEL MOUSE

8 FSC AMILO LI2735

8 HP L1910

8 TRUST 14550 KB1120 KEYBOARD

8 LOGITECH V220 CORDLESS OPTICAL MOUSE

9 TOSHIBA SATELLITE L300-13R

9 ACER AL1916WDS

9 TRUST DS-3400D WIRELESS OPTICAL DESKSET

9 LOGITECH V150 LASER MOUSE

10 HP 550 FS343AA

10 ACER P193W

10 APPLE MB110B/A

10 LOGITECH LX6 CORDLESS

INKJET PRINTERS

LASER PRINTERS

GAME CONTROLLERS DVD WRITERS

1

KEYBOARDS

MICE

1

1

1

1

SAMSUNG

HP

HP

963291-0914 SH-S202 WINGMAN ATTACK 3

DESKJET D1560

LASERJET P1005

2 SAITEK P380 DUAL ANALOG PAD

2 LG GH-22NP

2 EPSON STYLUS PHOTO R285

2 HP LASERJET P2014

3 LOGITECH WINGMAN EXTREME 3D

3 SONY DRU-190S

3 EPSON STYLUS D92

3 SAMSUNG CLP 315

4 TRUST GM 1200

4 LITEON DH-20A4P

4 HP DESKJET D1460

4 HP COLOR LASERJET CP1515N

5 LOGITECH 963325-1914 RUMBLEPAD II

5 SAMSUNG SH-S203

5 CANON PIXMA IP4500

5 SAMSUNG ML 2240

6 TRUST 14274 JOYSTICK GM-2500

6 NEC AD-7200S

6 CANON PIXMA IP2600

6 HP LASERJET P2015DN

7 LOGITECH 963290-0914 EXTREME 3D PRO

7 NEC AD-5200A

7 EPSON STYLUS S20

7 HP LASERJET P1006

8 LOGITECH 963292-0914 DUAL ACTION USB

8 SONY DRU-190A

8 HP DESKJET D4260

8 HP LASERJET P2015

9 SAITEK ST290 USB

9 LG GH-20NS

9 HP DESKJET 6940

9 HP LASERJET P2015N

10 LOGITECH 963325-0914 WINGMAN

10 LG LIGHTSCRIBE GH22LP20

10 HP PHOTOSMART A526

10 HP COLOR LASERJET 2605DN

LOGITECH

www.pcretailmag.com

PCRetail December 87

*From September 2008 data

HARDWARE CHARTS

GfK provides market research consultancy to manufacturers on the technologies markets and also operates a reseller partnership that provides market research information to dealers in the channel. For further information on GfK please contact Ami Brooks on tel: 0870 603 8247 or email: ami.brooks@gfk.com Models listed are non-exclusive: Neither sold as a tradebrand nor sold exclusively within one retailer or retail group

MFDS

GRAPHICS CARDS

TV CARDS

VIDEO CARDS*

1

1

1

HP

PNY

HAUPPAUGE

DAZZLE

DESKJET F2180

TECHNOLOG GF 6200

WINTV NOVA-T 500

DV EDITOR 2005

2 CANON PIXMA MP220

2 PNY TECHNOLOG GEFORCE 8500GT

2 HAUPPAUGE WINTV HVR-1100

HAUPPAUGE IMPACT VCB

3 HP PHOTOSMART C4480

3 PNY TECHNOLOG GEFORCE 6 6200

3 HAUPPAUGE WINTV EXPRESS

TRUST FIREWIRE DV 410

4 EPSON STYLUS DX8400

4 XFX GEFORCE 8600GT

4 HAUPPAUGE WINTV NOVA-T PCI

PINNACLE SYST STUDIO MOVIEBOARD PLUS

5 CANON PIXMA MP210

5 PNY TECHNOLOG GEFORCE 7300GT

5 DAZZLE TV PCI

PINNACLE SYST STUDIO PLUS 700-PCI VERSION

6 HP PHOTOSMART C5280

6 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 4850

6 HAUPPAUGE WINTV NOVA-HD-S2

PINNACLE SYST STUDIO AV/DV DELUXE 9

7 HP DESKJET F2280

7 SAPPHIRE RADEON HD3650

7 HAUPPAUGE WINTV PRIMIO FM

DAZZLE DV CLIP

8 HP DESKJET F2290

8 ASUS GEFORCE EN9600GT

8 HAUPPAUGE WINTV PVR-150

9 HP PHOTOSMART C4280

9 SAPPHIRE RADEON X1650 PRO

9 HAUPPAUGE WINTV HVR-4000

10 LEXMARK X2650

10 PNY TECHNOLOG GEFORCE 9600 GT

10 HAUPPAUGE WINTV GO

1

*Only seven models of video cards were sold during September

ROUTERS

WEBCAMS

PC SPEAKERS

1

1

1

NETGEAR

MICROSOFT

SAMSUNG

CANON

DG834G ADSL MODEM ROUTER

LIFECAM VX-1000

ASP-600S

CANOSCAN LIDE 25

2 BELKIN F5D7230_4 WIRELESS G ROUTER

2 LOGITECH QUICKCAM E 3500

2 SONY ERICSSON MPS-70

2 CANON CANOSCAN LIDE 90

3 NETGEAR WGR614 WIRELESS ROUTER

3 MICROSOFT LIFECAM VX-3000

3 BOSE SOUNDDOCK BLACK

3 EPSON PERFECTION V 200 PHOTO

4 BELKIN F5D7632_4 WIRELESS G MODEM

4 CREATIVE LIVE! CAM VIDEO IM PRO

4 LOGITECH X-140

4 CANON CANOSCAN 4400F

5 NETGEAR DG834PN RANGEMAX WIRELESS

5 LOGITECH QUICKCAM E2500

5 SONY SRS-D 21

5 CANON CANOSCAN LIDE 600F

6 BELKIN F5D9230-4 4PORT MIMO

6 LOGITECH QUICKCAM PRO 9000

6 EXSPECT EX695 SHUFFLE SPEAKER SILVER

6 HP SCANJET G2410

7 BELKIN F5D8233_4 WIRELESS N ROUTER

7 TRUST CHAT AND VOIP PACK CP2100

7 PHILIPS SPA 1300

7 CANON CANOSCAN 8800F

8 NETGEAR WGT624 WIRELESS ROUTER

8 TRUST WEBCAM WB-1400T

8 PHILIPS SPA 3200

8 HP SCANJET 5590

9 BELKIN F5D8633UK4 N WIRELESS ROUTER

9 CREATIVE LIVE! CAM VIDEO IM

9 LOGITECH X-240 2.1 SYSTEM

9 EPSON PERFECTION V 350 PHOTO

10 NETGEAR DG834N RANGEMAX ROUTER

10 LOGITECH QUICKCAM FOR NOTEBOOKS

10 INTEMPO IDS-05 BLACK

10 HP SCANJET G3010

88 PCRetail December

SCANNERS

1

www.pcretailmag.com

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CHANNEL EXPO2009 Gold sponsors:

Hall 9, NEC, Birmingham 20-21 May 2009

Profit. Partnerships.

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Channel Expo 2009 will be bigger and better than ever before. After extensive audience and exhibitor research and investment we have now put together an event that truly provides you with the opportunity to explore and compare a vast array of products and partners.

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For further details on sponsorship or exhibiting contact:

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Media partners:

*From October 2008 data

SOFTWARE CHARTS

The charts credited to ELSPA and GfK/ChartTrack are the strict copyright of ELSPA. For more information, subscribe to the ELSPA weekly report. Contact ELSPA at: 167 Wardour Street, London W1F 8WL. Tel: 020 7534 0580.

PC GAMES

BUDGET GAMES

1

APPLE MAC

1

1

UBISOFT

SEGA

MICROSOFT

FAR CRY 2

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2008

OFFICE 2008 STUDENT

2 SPORE

EA GAMES

3 WARHAMMER ONLINE: AGE OF RECKONING 4 THE SIMS 2: APARTMENT LIFE 5 BROTHERS IN ARMS: HELL’S HIGHWAY

GOA

2 WORLD OF WARCRAFT

BLIZZARD

2 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE

ASPYR

3 WORLD OF WARCRAFT: THE BURNING CRUSADE

BLIZZARD

3 APPLE IWORK 08

APPLE

EA GAMES

4 SNIPER: ART OF VICTORY

PREMIERE SILVER

4 ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 6.0

UBISOFT

5 MEDIEVAL II: TOTAL WAR

GSP/AVANQUEST

5 APPLE IWORK 08 FAMILY

APPLE

6 THE SIMS 2

ASPYR

6 CIVILIZATION IV: COLONIZATION

2K GAMES

6 THE SIMS 2: IKEA HOME STUFF

7 CRYSIS WARHEAD

EA GAMES

7 ASSASSIN'S CREED

UBISOFT

7 AGE OF EMPIRES III

8 AGE OF EMPIRES: COLLECTORS EDITION

XPLOSIV

8 APPLE ILIFE '08

8 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2009

KONAMI

EA GAMES

9 FIFA 09

EA SPORTS

9 LOCK ON: AIR COMBAT SIMULATION

10 THE SIMS 2: DOUBLE DELUXE

EA GAMES

10 ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 3

2

1 MICROSOFT

11 KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY

3 WINDOWS LIVE ONECARE 2.0

MICROSOFT

12 ALL IN ONE DRIVING TEST

7 ROXIO BACKONTRACK ONLINE

FOCUS KASPERSKY NORTON ROXIO

KASPERSKY

GSP/AVANQUEST

13 OFFICIAL DSA THEORY TEST + HIGHWAY

GSP/AVANQUEST

AHEAD

33 MCAFEE INTERNET SECURITY SUITE 08MCAFEE

21 MCAFEE TOTAL PROTECTION 2009

MCAFEE

34 BIGGER BRAIN TRAINER

FOCUS

22 MCAFEE INTERNET SECURITY 09

MCAFEE

35 CREATE YOUR OWN FAMILY TREE:

FOCUS

23 MCAFEE INTERNET SECURITY 09 UPG MCAFEE

36 ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 6.0

ADOBE

24 KASPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS 2009

37 YOUR 3D HOME DESIGNER

FOCUS

38 COREL PAINT SHOP PRO PHOTO X2

COREL

39 COREL PAINT SHOP PRO PHOTO X2

COREL

25 ALL IN ONE DRIVING TEST

KASPERSKY GSP/AVANQUEST

TSO

26 TRANSFER MYPC V4.5 FOR VISTA 27 DRIVING TEST SUCCESS ALL TESTS

FOCUS

15 KASPERSKY ANTI-VIRUS 2009 KASPERSKY LAB

28 NORTON ANTIVIRUS 2008 3 USER

NORTON

16 OFFICIAL DSA COMPLETE LEARN DRIVE

29 FOCUS SELECT: DESKTOP PUBLISHING FOCUS

42 TEACHING YOU TOUCH TYPING

FOCUS

30 NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2009

43 FOCUS SELECT: PHOTO STUDIO

FOCUS

NORTON

17 NORTON ANTIVIRUS 2009 3 USER

9 NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2008

NORTON

18 ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 7.0

10 DSA COMPLETE THEORY KIT + HIGHWAY TSO

4

FOCUS

14 BRAIN TRAINER

8 NORTON SYSTEMWORKS V11

www.pcretailmag.com

ASPYR

10 PARALLELS DESKTOP 3.0

20 NERO – BURNING ROM V8.0

NORTON

2 OFFICE HOME AND STUDENT

6 NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2009

APPLE

9 X-PLANE V9.0

MASTERTRONIC

3

360 ALL-IN-ONE SECURITY V2.0

5 KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY

MACSOFT

GfK provides market research consultancy to manufacturers on the technologies markets and also operates a reseller partnership that provides market research information to dealers in the channel.

HOME OFFICE

4 DRIVING TEST SUCCESS

FOCUS

ADOBE

19 NORTON ANTIVIRUS 2009 3 USER

TSO

NORTON ADOBE NORTON

31 MR SITE TAKEAWAY WEBSITE 32 MICROSOFT OUTLOOK 2007

ORLOGIX

NORTON MR SITE

MICROSOFT

40 WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE

GSP/AVANQUEST

41 OFFICIAL DSA THEORY TEST MOTORBIKE TSO

44 CREATE YOUR OWN GREETINGS 45 MCAFEE TOTAL PROTECTION 2008

FOCUS MCAFEE

PCRetail December 91

THE PLACE FOR BUSINESS

MARKETPLACE RETAIL COMMENT

There’s still time to get some bargins hristmas. Yep, by the time you read this, children up and down the country will be legitimately chomping down chocolate in the morning thanks to advent calendars and parents will be running around the country frantically searching for that ideal present. So, how do you fill your shop with must haves and avoid the technology equivalent of socks?

One thing that is the ideal last-minute gift is an iPod case. Sounds boring? Well, Exspect have a range of cases designed by the likes of Dave Grohl and Giorgio Armani, and what’s more, with the firm supporting the 21st Century Leaders Foundation, your customer’s desire can be channelled into a good cause.

Interactive Ideas also has another great last-minute Christmas gift for those who are difficult to buy for – Magix’s Rescue Your Vinyl and Tape – especially if they’ve asked you or someone you know for a CD version of their favourite vinyl or tapebased hit. It creates MP3 versions of their vinyl and tape collections and even cleans up any hiss and crackle recorded too.

Asus meanwhile gave us a hint of what lies ahead next year and beyond with the launch of two new computers. Its Bamboo laptop is amongst the greenest of all laptops due for release this coming year – partly because it is made from real bamboo. The firm also showed off the next version of its popular Eee PC, the Eee Top 1602: a touchscreen device designed for the living room. Both devices have the potential to make a big mark on the channel and if 2008 was anything to go by, Asus is going to have another incredibly successful year during 2009, as well.

C

Ben Furfie, Deputy Editor ben.furfie@intentmedia.co.uk

www.pcretailmag.com

To advertise on these pages please call Carly Bailey TELEPHONE 01992 535647 OR EMAIL CARLY.BAILEY@INTENTMEDIA.CO.UK PCRetail December 93

MARKETPLACE NEWS

US hard drive vendor targets creative community with new invasion plan G-Technology signs deal with CCI Distribution to bring Macintosh products to the UK CI has signalled its intentions to further strengthen its Mac portfolio, after it signed a deal with US vendor G-Technology to bring its products to the UK. G-Technology is a subsidiary of Fabrik Company, which also owns the SimpleTech brand, and specialises in hard drive and storage solutions for Macs. Both firms feel that the partnership will help to expand their market share in the UK Mac market.

Indeed, the deal comes off the back of increased demand from CCI’s customer base, with the firm Jon Atherton describing the move as vital to

C

maintaining its position as a ‘serious player’ in the UK market.

“Here at CCI, we felt that we needed to support our Mac customers even more within the consumer market,” commented sales director Nick Preston.

“To maintain our position as a serious player in the UK, it was vital to source new, high-quality brands.

“G-Technology’s products have won a large number of awards in the United States and are used by some of the leading studios for reliable

back up,” continued Preston.

It is the creative and design segment that G-Technology’s executive vice president, Roger Mabon feels has the most to gain from the deal: “G-Technology’s mission is to provide the creative community with quality products that incorporate superior industrial design, functionality, usability and performance at affordable prices.

“We’re excited about working with CCI Distribution in the UK, and are looking forward to a successful relationship,” Mabon added.

ASI sticks it to the man-ufacturers SI is looking to revolutionise the way that software is sold in the channel after it signed a deal with Micro P to sell its Ability Office suite on a 1GB USB memory stick via its retailer and reseller partners, something that is being driven by the rise of netbooks.

The move will see the software distributed in two ways. Firstly, resellers and system builders will be able to purchase the stick from the OEM, ready for bundling with hardware. Secondly, retailers and resellers that would prefer to sell the device as a boxed product will also be able to do so.

The firm is hoping that the move

A

will allow it to strengthen its relationship with tier one vendors and allow its resellers to do the same.

“As the market grows ever more competitive in today’s creditconstrained environment, endusers of all types –

MARKETPLACE BYTES IT’s Mobile convergence O2 and Micro P have signed a deal to help IT and telecoms retailers prepare themselves for increased convergence between the two industries.

The deal means that both channels will be able to offer free laptop and mobile broadband deals. www.micro-p.com

94 PCRetail December

whether business or consumer – are looking for value,” explained group sales and development director at ASI, David Hennell.

Part of this drive has been put down to the rise of netbooks, states Hennell: “Nowhere is this truer than in the fast-growing netbook space, where software products absolutely have to be delivered on USB, because the hardware has no optical drive, plus applications have to be light both in install space and system resource usage – ASI Ability Office USB satisfies all of these requirements.

“We are therefore delighted to have agreed this arrangement

with Micro P, especially given their proactivity within all areas of the UK IT reseller space.”

This was a position echoed by Micro P’s director Mark Kahr: “The USB version of ASI Ability Office targets the widest possible range of hardware. It is of course relevant to any PC or notebook system, but especially resolves the twin issues of how to load productivity software onto a netbook and how to do so affordably.

“By adopting the USB version of ASI Ability Office, our resellers can now fulfil their customers’ core software needs without in any way negating the crucial lower-priced value proposition inherent in netbooks,” added Kahr.

To get the latest product news daily,

OKI Printer

Hanns-On monitor

A VeryPC ideal

Qual a lot of people

Oki has unveiled two new printers that are ideal for customers that need A4 and A3 printing, but don’t have the space traditionally required to have them. The C810 and the C830 are designed to be low cost both in terms of ownership and the additional benefits that they bring to users. www.oki.co.uk

HannsG has launched a new ‘tough’ monitor – the HC196DP – which it says is ideal for a variety of environments where the screens might be in for a rough time. The rugged screen allows heavy duty and regular cleaning, thanks to its protective acrylic screen surface. www.hannsg.com

VeryPC is looking to help the UK’s reseller community aid their customers in exceeding the government’s guidelines for greener ways of computing by launching a trade-in scheme for old servers.

Businesses can now get rid of their old, inefficient servers and replace them. www.very-pc.co.uk

Qualcomm says more than 30 mobile internet devices are in development based on its Snapdragon chipsets.

Snapdragon technology is built around a 1GHz processor core, a DSP and 3G connectivity. Qualcomm says it will be used in a new generation of Pocketable Computing Devices. www.qualcomm.com

www.pcretailmag.com

MARKETPLACE NEWS

Kaspersky goes Enterprise aspersky Labs has signed a deal with enterprise-focused distributor Arrow, as it looks to push into the sector with anti-virus focused security solutions.

The deal will see Arrow offer its enterprise-focused dealers the vendor’s security solutions and hosted services to its clients, something which Kaspersky feels should see any dealer taking up the software reaping the rewards thanks to its retail reputation.

“Our clients expect best-of-breed technology they can trust,” said Arrow’s Security Divisional Director James Pattinson. He dismissed any suggestions that its history as

K

consumer product focussed might mean it isn’t powerful enough for business and enterprise customers: “Kasperksky Lab’s award winning technologies deliver highly effective, reliable and future proof protection that will meet and exceed our partner’s security requirements.

Indeed, Kaspersky Lab’s core technology is a key engine with three of our major technology vendors.”

Kaspersky Lab’s UK and Ireland managing director echoed those comments, saying: “The breadth and scalability of Kaspersky Lab’s corporate solution set today enables us to look beyond the reach of the UK’s traditional security resellers.”

Kaspersky’s success in the consumer arena is spearheading its push into the enterprise market

Be at the office with a Flash Freecom Unlimited reecom is looking to increase its visibility in the Mac market after it has signed a deal with Computers Unlimited to distribute its range of DVD optical drives, USB flash and HDD storage solutions in the UK and Europe.

The move represents the first time Freecom has entered into the Mac market, but the firm has high hopes for its product range, especially after

F

aligning itself with Computers Unlimited.

“Computers Unlimited is an ideal choice to help Freecom sell to new and existing Mac users,” commented director of marketing at Freecom Europe, Axel Lucassen.

“We are very happy to promote our products in this channel, so it can access our award winning range.”

lash memory distributor Peak Development has announced a deal with software developers The Key Revolution – composed of exVodafone employees – to bring its secure virtual mobile network solution to users of mobile computing in small to medium business, via its dealer network.

Mobiu is a USB-based device with a SIM card that plugs into a computer in the same way that normal USB broadband dongle would, but gives users the ability to connect to their business’ VPN, as well as back up key files, data

F

and applications safely.

It is compatible with PCs running Windows XP or Vista.

“One of the key issues for customers at the moment is cost effective data security when working away from the office,” said Peak Development managing director, Robert Baseley.

“This makes Mobiu a very timely product for us to be involved in.”

sign up to PC Retail’s daily service at www.pcretailmag.com Hercules Webcam

Parallels ups Apple

Hercules has launched a new ‘high-tech’ webcam, which offers wide-angle vision, highfidelity vocal quality, a highresolution image sensor, chat and show functions, and Webcam Station Evolution software. The firm claims this gives a reason for consumers to upgrade from their built in webcam. www.hercules.com

Virtualisation specialist Parallels has unveiled the fourth version of its software that allows Windows to be run on an Apple Mac. The move has been made following encouragement from Apple, which is interested growing its presence in the business and corporate sector. www.apple.com

www.pcretailmag.com

Dell dumps MP3 music player PC vendor Dell has decided not to release its ambitious digital music player, tied to online entertainment software, before Christmas.

Dell has made the decision to shelve the anticipated player indefinitely and will proceed with the software alone. www.dell.com

WHS price cut

Apple on the move

Software giant Microsoft has dropped the price of Windows Home Server down to around $100 in the US. As yet there is no news if a similar price drop will be happening in the UK. From November 1st, the System Builder SKU for Windows Home Server will retail at $100-110. www.microsoft.com

Apple may be set to launch a new MacBook with 3G mobile broadband built in, according to Strategy Analytics. It said that such a move is the “next logical step” for Apple, citing the chance to cross-sell a MacBook to its base of iPhone users, to stimulate average revenue per user. www.apple.com

PCRetail December 95

MARKETPLACE PCA NEWS

Angelina Jolie and the PCA Made you look! Keith Warburton discusses the PCA Conference and how to raise attendance THE RECENT PCA conference was, on the whole, a great success and our superb speakers covered an incredibly diverse range of topics. Do you want to know about the 25 per cent margin potential available by reselling Sony video conferencing kits?

There was plenty of opportunity to learn about this 30 per cent per annum growth market. Want to find out about Trust Technology’s push into the Mac arena with some superb peripherals? Their shiny new 2009 range was there and the Mac environment is a bit different to the PC one – for starters you can actually make a margin.

And talking of margins, some excellent profit potential was demonstrated by IDSbox, Autotask, Level Platforms and NTR Global – the latter three making offerings in the highly lucrative remote and managed services arena, while Synaxon and FixITlocal expounded the benefits of their respective groups’ schemes.

One of the most distinctive offerings was that made by Ghost Software. Do you have some software that needs writing or modifying, either for yourself or your customers? The Ghost team can do it for you, at a cheaper rate and will give you a good discount or commission. If you serve the needs of business users, this is another great string to your bow.

The Conference wasn’t just about products or services, though. We heard from speakers who were able to offer insights a bit further into the future. The Application Home Initiative (TAHI) is about the concept of an interconnected home where appliances and systems really do communicate; where the electric meter becomes a two way service and where we can benefit from many extra services, such as remote healthcare monitoring. Best of all, they’ll still need local specialists to sort out the problems.

As always, the EMEA director of credit services at Bell Micro, Eddie Pacey made finance come alive – underlining just how important it is, now more than ever, to maintain dialogue within the supply chain.

However our keynote speaker, Alastair Dryborough from Akenhurst Consultants had the audience’s complete attention with his seminar entitled ‘How to Deal with a Downturn.’

We intend to bring Alastair back to deliver a business management master class later on in 2009 – most of the audience indicated they might even pay good money to attend.

Which leads me on to the only spanner in the

works with regard to the conference: even though we had over 70 in attendance, we should have had 100 or more delegates like last year. Why weren’t they there? Well, it was the school half term in many areas, but as someone said, if our guest speaker had been a naked Angelina Jolie the people would have turned out. In fact, they’d have been there even if she was clothed! When we did our ring around prior to the event the most common excuse for not attending was business. Interestingly, more often than not it was because there was too much business, which confirms the received wisdom that everyone is having to sell lots more units in order to make the same money. Which in turn brings us back to the conference. What better place for resellers to find out how to sell the higher margin products or those items sporting a high ticket value, or how to move into a fast growth market? But I know full well that when you are up to your backside in alligators it’s hard to remind yourself that your initial objective was to drain the swamp. Angelina would help you remember, though, wouldn’t she?

If our guest speaker was a naked Angelina Jolie the people would have turned out.

In fact, they’d have been there even if she was clothed!

KEITH WARBURTON IS THE CEO OF THE PROFESSIONAL COMPUTING ASSOCIATION, THE 15-YEAR-OLD, NOT-FOR-PROFIT TRADE BODY WITH MEMBERSHIP MADE UP OF BUSINESSES FROM ALL PARTS OF THE CHANNEL. VISIT WWW.PCASSOCIATION.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION OR CALL 0845 634 9245.

96 PCRetail December

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MARKETPLACE MAC TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION

The stands are gone and the visitors have returned home This month, Robert Peckham sees the spectre of another trade show staring over the precipice... his may be a very controversial statement, but how do you explain the impending demise of Mac Expo to the Apple-using community?

In its chosen sectors, Apple either dominates the marketplace, as with the iPod and the iPhone, or has seen near-double digit growth in market share for its computer products. And yet the only annual exhibition in the UK to celebrate this phenomenal record of success looked sadly lost and forgotten inside the cavernous Olympia National Hall, and regrettably received remarkably few visitors.

Expomedia Events, the new organisers for Mac Expo, really should be congratulated for taking up this challenge, as they made a sterling effort to put on a show despite mounting odds. They inherited a very low starting point from the previous organisers, very late in the year, and when Adobe stepped in to boost the fortunes of the event, they changed the headline title of the show into ‘Creative Live Expo’ to reflect this new involvement. And Adobe was the real star of the show – this was really its Expo, with some Apple presence for the benefit of the vast majority of Adobe users who run their software on Mac. But to fill this huge space, the organisers also moved in Linux Live Expo, which frankly was an odd fit with the 'Creative' theme of the show, but the Linux area was quite evidently well attended by many who scratched their beards and wondered why all this Apple stuff was present at their show.

Yes, the Mac Technology Association was there; we had a pavilion at the rear of the hall where visitors could see Drobo, VMWare Fusion, Traffic from Sohnar Software and meet the great people from Cancom, Academy Class Training and many of our reseller members who were helping our vendors display and demonstrate their products.

The question is, where were the headline exhibitors?

As with the last two years, Apple was not there, but Square Group did a superb job of building an Apple Premium Reseller store inside the hall to greet the visitors. Conspicuously missing were HP, Epson, LaCie, Microsoft, Netgear, and many of the other notable vendors who have been so prominent at previous Mac Expos.

I certainly took the time to talk to as many visitors as I could about their impressions of the show, and sadly the overall response was negative. Based on what they

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found and saw this year, it will take a major turnaround of show content and attractions for any of these visitors to attend again next year. The show has become locked into a self-fulfilling demise, with dropping visitor numbers over the past three years leading to lowering numbers of exhibitors and generally a negative feeling about the show, which has led to a further drop in visitor numbers.

So what of the future? To survive into the next couple of years, Mac Expo needs a major relaunch of its image. Its organisers also need to work hard to generate some really compelling reasons why visitors will want to visit the show next year, including getting the missing mainline vendors back on board. Expomedia Events has a real challenge on their hands if the show is to survive, and the Association will be pleased to help and support it in whatever way it can.

To survive, Mac Expo needs a major relaunch of its image and a lot of hard work to get past exhbitors back.

ROBERT PECKHAM is the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the MAC TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION, which began life as The UK Mac–Dealer Association five years ago, and re–branded in 2007 to reflect the changing, consultancy and services–driven business model that many Apple resellers have now adopted.

WWW.MACTECHNOLOGY.ORG.UK | INFO@MACTECHNOLOGY.ORG | TELEPHONE: 08717 177264

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PCRetail December 97

ITACS NEWS

NASCR NEWS

Opportunity to build on WEEE

Manufacturers, make sure you’ve got it right!

By Matthew Woolley Chairman of ITACS

By Geoff Carr, NASCR Committee Member

We know the UK implementation of the WEEE directive is unfair, and almost 500 of you have told the Government so with a petition – which has had no official response.

Add to this a lack of easy to understand guidance and huge fees and it’s no wonder many of you are sick of the subject. But wait – we can make it easier for you and take away the worries.

ITACS has looked hard at the market and has found what we consider to be the best deal for our members. We negotiated to reduce the costs and if you register as a producer you can build custom computers and be paid for the WEEE you collect. ITACS gets nothing back from this scheme except the satisfaction of a good deal for our members. We also decided to share your pain during these hard times and have reduced our membership fee to £25 for your first year of membership.

So, apart from getting money for your WEEE, why build computers?

There are three profitable markets that you should be looking at. The first, repair and upgrade is obvious.

Selling a custom PC means you can repair or upgrade without warranties and call centres getting in the way. Also, using standard parts means you can reinstall or repair without trying to find specialist media or parts.

Another highly profitable area which some members are beginning to exploit is the custom gaming market. Building

computers which can retail for £1000 to £2000 is interesting, fun, and profitable. Clients come back frequently and want to obtain the latest and best graphic cards or processors on a regular basis. With your direct access to distributors, you can obtain high quality parts at a good discount on or before the official release dates. There is also the modding market to exploit with LEDs, black lights, cooling systems, fancy cases and so on.

Finally, if your primary area of activity is business then look into custom servers. Instead of sending units back to manufacturers with the potential for data loss and long downtimes, you can step in immediately and repair the part that is broken. No need for complex RMA forms or phone calls to call centres who tell you to do a hundred things you have tried already.

Take the time to look at the WeeeCare deal on our website: www.itacs.org.uk/weee-deal/

ITACS gets nothing back from this deal except the satisfaction of a good deal for our members

INDEPENDENT TRADE ASSOCIATION OF COMPUTING SPECIALISTS – YOU CAN CONTACT ITACS ON 08445 763 760 OR VISIT WWW.ITACS.ORG.UK

98 PCRetail December

JUST THE other day, my son Danny wanted to play against other people on his DS using its wireless connection. So my better half tried to set it up on our home broadband without any luck. This prompted her to visit Nintendo’s website for advice and found that they recommend she should disable our firewall. Shocked, she got it working by herself without doing that.

The next day I was looking at various makes of DVD re-writers to order for shop stock and found that they either come with no software, or utilities only for disk writing. Intrigued, I checked the basic drives and found they come without any software at all. My research came after some customers complained that their new drives don’t allow them to play DVD films as there is no supplied software.

Then someone brought in a brand new laptop because the built-in webcam won’t work without a driver update that won’t install. Naturally the widely derided multiple outlet that they bought it from won’t help and I referred them on to Acer.

Next came a cheap webcam purchased from a certain high street catalogue shop because it had no sound output. There were no instructions and the shop has zero tech support.

What all these incidents have in common is that the manufacturers are causing

problems that should have already been thought out and dealt with properly. Computer products are no longer the realm of the tech-savvy, but end users are simply left to fend for themselves. Often, this can mean that they turn up on our welcome mat whether they bought from us originally or not. This can be a mixed blessing depending on how it is handled. Here is a person who is disappointed through no fault of the seller yet they expect the seller to resolve the issue for them. If the seller has already refused or failed to do that, they are now even more upset.

Now we have to decide what we can do and what we can charge for doing it. Some of these jobs do end up as freebies and we hope the resultant good will persuade people to come to us for future purchases. We might end up being seen as free support instead of a place to buy,yet it is a risk worth taking and they can always be referred back to the seller if they really make a habit of it.

The bottom line is that we will try to help if we can, an attitude that seems to go against the grain with a lot of business people. So if I have done nothing more than get you thinking about it, I am happy for that. But if you are a manufacturer, please make sure your product is properly finished for retail.

Computer products are no longer the realm of the tech-savvy

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPECIALIST COMPUTER RETAILERS – YOU CAN CONTACT NASCR ON 08456 440715 OR VISIT WWW.NASCR.ORG

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MARKETPLACE BRIGANTIA NEWS

Contact Iain Shaw PC Retail’s own agony uncle info@brigantia.com 0870 160 3215 www.brigantia.com

Agony Uncle

Each month, Iain Shaw chooses a topic taken initially from the Brigantia members forum and provides a considered response for PC Retail readers…

Repair IT, upgrade IT, profit from IT AS WE move into the festive month of December, I wonder just how much Christmas spirit there will be about for those who depend for their living on retailing. The Credit Crunch is likely to mean that people will be holding onto their hard earned cash and not splashing out on expensive items, which is good news for the supermarkets and bad news for all other retailers and e-tailers.

The one bit of good cheer I can see for indie computer solution providers will be that end users – be they businesses or consumers – are going to want to extend the life of their existing IT solutions. So make sure that you get the message out in your area that you are the computer expert that can repair, upgrade, and, most importantly, extend the life of existing equipment. Remember that potential new customers like to feel confident when they engage with someone new.

Trade association membership can help with that, so if you have not yet joined ITACS make sure you do so. Get end users through your doors and it will open up selling opportunities for software and other services such as online backup. Have everything you will need to hand for basic tasks such as virus removal and operating system cleanup, together with the provision of additional memory, hard disk space and graphics capabilities.

The opportunities must be grasped as they arise and it will be no good to tell a potential new customer that they will have to wait as your competitors will be offering same-day fixes.

I hear you all saying ‘he is teaching his grandmother to suck eggs’ – well I may be, but the message I am trying to drive home is that in this time of doom and gloom it is no good to stick your head in the sand. Remember the basics and keep the stock-in trade that you will need to grasp each and every opportunity that comes your way.

Now how about some marketing which does not have to cost much? Whenever you or your engineers visit a customer in December and January, as you finish the job, ask the customer for some recommendations in the local area.

In this time of doom and gloom it is no good to stick your head in the sand. Remember the basics and grab every opportunity.

If someone around the corner has a problem or may be looking for computer help, call on them while out and introduce your business, ensuring you make clear who recommended you, as this will open doors.

Other simple things that cost little money would include locating all local notice boards in places such as supermarkets, post offices, churches, doctors’ surgeries, fish’n’chip shops, etc, and then push your message out with a simple flyer that

carries the extending computer equipment life message together with your contact details.

You could also download copies of Sun OpenOffice and Ubuntu and write them to CD. Once once placed into jewel cases with printed artwork, these make a very nice £10 retail sale – remember you are not selling the software as that is free, but simply putting an admin charge on preparing the media. These products are very easy to introduce to hard-pressed end-users looking to upgrade.

Finally, the key here is to encourage customers to want things that you can charge your time to deliver. Focus on the time not the goods! Those indies that attended last month’s highly successful 10th Brigantia Members Roadshow at the Belfry Hotel, sponsored by Nvidia and hosted by Enta Technologies, will remember the mantra of repair IT, upgrade IT, profit from IT. Those that did not should take this onboard.

Next month I will be reviewing feedback on trade in 2008 and looking ahead to 2009.

Iain invites opinions from PC Retail readers and will respond though this column www.pcretailmag.com

PCRetail December 99

COMPANY PROFILE: COLE ROBERTS AND CO

Always putting resellers First With four different divisions, all focused on helping resellers break into the convergent IT/telecoms market, a firm has never been so ideally placed to help its partners as Cole Roberts and Co. Ben Furfie sits down with business development manager Jason Hamlin to talk about what CRC has to offer you… t’s no surprise that in the current climate of convergence between the IT channel and the telecoms sector, more and more resellers are looking at telecoms as an avenue that has a strong future. However, the two channels have always had their fate intertwined in one way or another.

One of the first firms to pick up on this trend was Cole Robert and Co, as the firm’s business development manager Jason Hamlin explains to PC Retail. “CRC is a successful communications company that was established back in 1993 and has since expanded to include Broadband First, CRC Telecom, Host First and Data First, all of which

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100 PCRetail December

operate wholesale B2B services through our ever growing network of partners.”

Many resellers’ first experience with the company was likely through its internet division, Broadband First. “It was formed back in 2002 as the internet services division of CRC,” explains Hamlin. “It has a simple aim: to provide professional, reliable, business grade broadband services targeted towards business users, and this remains our core focus going forward.”

Asked what the main product of the division is, he says: “We provide our network of partners with an easy, low cost route to market, incorporating an

online portal allowing them to become their own fully white labelled virtual internet service provider.”

However, Hamlin is keen to stress that the firm doesn’t simply shift the service and then expect reseller to make do. “We train all of our partners to make them as self sufficient as possible and provide them with UK-based support, where our phones are answered by a person, not a machine.”

When asked how important he feels this has been to the company’s success, Hamlin replies: “This approach has delivered, and continues to deliver, very successful partner relationships and an enviable marketplace reputation.”

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COMPANY PROFILE: COLE ROBERTS AND CO

Its online service is, of course, built upon the initial success of its telecoms division, which in recent years has moved to specialise, as Hamlin explains: “The CRC telecoms division focuses on voice and data communication solutions to businesses throughout the UK. We do this by offering business customers the opportunity to significantly reduce their telephony costs and also, the ongoing assistance in the management of all aspects of telecommunications.”

However, the firm is not resting on its laurels when it comes to expanding the business. “While expanding our partner base, we have also recognised significant demand for both web hosting and online back-up services,” Hamlin comments.

“This demand formed our latest divisions, and the concepts of Host First and Data First were born.

Host First provides web hosting, server co-location, dedicated servers and virtual private services, while Data First offers simple yet secure business grade online backup solutions for both servers and desktop machines.”

Convergence isn’t just driving change in the consumer retail market, it is also having a profound impact on the reseller market. “Recently, we have noticed that our partners are diversifying ever more into our other areas of business, namely cross-selling additional products to their existing customers and this in turn gives them additional lock-in with those customers,” Hamlin goes on to say.

“There has also been an upward trend towards more niche products, particularly ADSL2+, private

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DSL and bonded DSL, which are sought to replace costly leased lines and are used as very viable solutions to increased bandwidth speeds in areas where standard DSL services are insufficient,” he adds.

Hamlin argues that it is this wide spectrum of services that has given Cole Roberts and Co such a strong offering. “We give each of our partners the flexibility to use any of the products from any division within the CRC structure. This, combined with our expertise in many market sectors – including ISPs, IT support consultants, network engineering, IT sales, IP security, telecoms, petrochemical and software suppliers to name but a few – means we offer a very comprehensive and competitive range of solutions, which can be used to launch either a new standalone business or as an enrichment to an existing product portfolio to aid a business in both retailing existing and winning new customers.”

Indeed, it is this flexibility and the white-label service that has been one of the cornerstones of Cole Roberts and Co’s success through its 15 years in business, according to Hamlin. However, the firm is keen to make sure that it doesn’t stop innovating, by looking at ways in which it can make its partners lives’ easier. “All of the products can be supplied on a full white-label basis,” he says. “In addition, we offer our partners the option of a white label billing and direct debit collection service, giving them time to focus on their customers’ needs, leaving the provision of services and administration to us.”

We give each of our partners the flexibility to use any of the products from any division within the CRC structure.

This means we offer a very comprehensive and competitive range of solutions.

Jason Hamlin

PCRetail December 101

To advertise on these pages, please call Carly Bailey on 01992 535647 or email carly.bailey@intentmedia.co.uk

MARKETPLACE

Lexmark introduces new range of laser printers New models focus on economic running, with specialist features for differing solutions exmark has introduced several new printers in both its MFD and laser categories, as it looks to help its small and medium business users lower costs by saving paper and energy.

It has bolstered its colour laser printer range with the launch of the C540 and X540 Series. Both feature built-in two-sided printing, an eco-mode to reduce power consumption and

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a quiet mode that reduces noise emissions.

The vendor has also updated its range of professional series monochrome printers, including the E260d and E260dn, which come with two-sided printing, the same eco-mode and an instant warm up fuser to save energy when not in use. Its E360d and E360dn, on the other hand, offer the fastest print speeds in their class and also feature expanded memory for printing graphic-intensive documents, making them ideal for creative industries. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Lexmark is committed to helping our customers print less and save more,â&#x20AC;? said Lexmarkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vice president and president of its Printing

Solutions and Services division, Marty Canning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our new, reliable line of monochrome laser printers offer outstanding image quality, fast print speeds and reliable operation to help businesses save time and money and reduce their impact on the environment.â&#x20AC;?

The new range will lower costs

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MARKETPLACE

Meroncourtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music to your ears Amenity 2.1 Subwoofer System emerges as small but powerful speaker solution... eroncourt is promoting its latest speaker system this month, the Amenity 2.1 Subwoofer System, as the ideal product to stock if your customers are looking for a small, clear sounding sound solution that has a powerful bass response.

The 16W Amenity 2.1 Subwoofer System is small enough to fit under most desks and has been designed to fit in with the modern lifestyle, not just in terms of sound quality, but also in design and size.

It has two satellite speakers as well, which have been designed to take up as little space as possible, while not losing any quality of sound. They feature dual tweeters and midrange speakers, giving the users a level of sound usually associated with systems further up the price range.

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104 PCRetail December

The subwoofer also gives a bass response usually associated with systems of a much higher price, thanks in part to its compact five-inch cone and

adjustable bass tone and volume controls.

In addition, unlike other systems in the same price range, the Amenity 2.1 Subwoofer

device comes with a remote to control volume, meaning that users donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to move from their seat to change it if they are relatively far away.

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MARKETPLACE

Exspect does Whatever It Takes Accessories vendor teams up with 21st Century Leaders Foundation to bring fashion and musicial maestro’s designs to products in aid of charity xspect has signed a deal with the 21st Century Leaders Foundation as part of the latter’s Whatever It Takes campaign to create a range of iPod and iPhone storage cases, earphones, laptop bags and video game accessories bearing designs from leading musicians and fashion designers.

The Whatever It Takes collection is available now and includes designs from a host of celebrity names, including: Alexander McQueen, Giorgio Armani, Sir Paul Smith, Amy Winehouse, Dave Grohl, Coldplay, Slash and Ozzy Osbourne.

Speaking about the launch of the products, Exspect’s general manager Neil Meredith said “Exspect is performing very well in the market, but we have been looking out for a strategic

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licensing partner to complement our position.

“As soon as we met with 21st Century Leaders, we knew it was right.

Having access to the portfolio of artwork donations gives us the opportunity to work with unique designs from truly household names.

“Also it can’t be overlooked that giving something back to an amazing charitable cause brings everyone in the business a great sense of satisfaction. Initial pre-launch meetings with retailers across Europe have been really constructive, with customers giving us great feedback on scoping out the range.”

Selling the Whatever It Takes range will bring you customers and contribute to charity

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MARKETPLACE

Realtime protection F-Secure and Realtime distribution team up to bring channel cloud-based security software -Secure has unveiled its 2009 line up and is hoping that its cloud-based solution will give it the edge to push past its rivals.

The crux of its 2009 range is the rapid response protection offered by the cloud-based nature of the software â&#x20AC;&#x201C; something that F-Secure says gives it the advantage over rivals who are still too reliant on traditional heuristics or signaturebased solutions that it describes as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;too slow and inefficientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Instead, its 2009 range of software uses a combination of on-computer and in-the-cloud analysis to protect userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s computers against threats on a real-time basis.

Speaking about the product, F-Secureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chief technology officer Pirkka Palomäki said: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our real-time protection network is based on in-the-cloud

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computing. It has been designed to support a wider range of security services than just anti-virus and F-Secure is now further enhancing many of its services to use the power of cloud computing.â&#x20AC;?

Realtime, which distributes the software, feels that the ability of F-Secure 2009 to update rapidly and protect computers in a record time fits right in with the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s other products. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Like the rest of Realtimeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product portfolio, F-Secure offers real innovation and leading technology,â&#x20AC;? commented sales director Richard Marsden.

He also feels that the availability of the software lends itself both to the system builder and retail market: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Its 2009 version is available in both

OEM and as a retail product. It fits perfectly with our customer profile.â&#x20AC;?

Go up in the clouds with F-Secure and Realtime

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108 PCRetail December

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MARKETPLACE

Bringing back the music Interactive Ideas comes to the rescue ands up if you have LPs and tapes gathering dust in a corner somewhere.

You're not alone; with millions of homes storing billions of tapes and vinyl discs out there, the potential for a device that can transfer the music on them to a PC and then on to CD, DVD and MP3 players is huge.

Luckily, Interactive Ideas has the ideal product to take advantage of that demand.

Magix’s Rescue your Vinyl and Tapes is the ideal gift or purchase for anyone whose player is either on its last legs or will soon be taking a one-way ticket to the loft.

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110 PCRetail December

Coming with a phono preamp, all that is required by the user is to connect the device to their tape or vinyl player, and their PC, the software will do the rest. This means that even the world’s biggest technophobes should have little trouble converting their songs.

It supports a wide variety of speeds and formats, including 33, 45 and 78 RPM LPs, comes with an automatic cleaning assistant to remove crackles and pops, as well as Magix’s Xtreme Print Centre software, allowing users to replicate the original cover for their CD back-up.

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Competitive Trade Pricing across the Sage Product Range.

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MARKETPLACE

Lockout data loss DeviceLock and Ironkey team up to offer data leakage solution ndpoint solutions provider DeviceLock and secure USB manufacturer Ironkey have teamed up to offer what they claim is the most secure way to manage the threat of data leakage in a corporate environment.

The two companies say that the combination of Ironkey’s hardware-based, ‘military grade’ encryption and DeviceLock’s control and auditing software is ideal to prevent data being compromised if lost. It’s equally as useful when it comes to ensuring any information that shouldn’t be on the stick in the first place isn’t duplicated.

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The software can also whitelist the Ironkey USB locks to prevent any unauthorised devices from accessing and removing sensitive information.

“DeviceLock and IronKey foresee continued growth in the use of removable storage devices by employees due to the small and convenient form factor,” explained the chief technology officer at DeviceLock, Ashot Oganesyan.

“Our mutual mission is to help IT security staff cope with the resultant threat to data privacy and security in an efficient, comprehensive and deeply granular manner.”

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MARKETPLACE

J&J gets fresh Juicebar mobile charger Running out of juice needn’t be a problem any more with this pocket-sized solar-powered lifesaver &J Associates believes it has found the ideal impulse purchase in the Juicebar pocket solar charger for mobile phones.

It has been designed so that it can easily fit in a pocket, and comes with 12 connectors per SKU to ensure that users won’t get a nasty surprise next time they run out of battery power.

The device is available in five SKUs – one for each of the big five mobile vendors – each designed to be compatible with a particular brand’s various connectors.

The packaging has also been carefully considered to display the charger so that it lets

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customers get a close-up look at the product before purchase.

However, what is truly ingenious about the device is not that it charges the customer’s mobile on the go, nor its size – which is handy for carrying about at a mere 11 x 40 x 93mm – although they are both key selling points; rather it is the device’s ability to charge by solar power.

Of course, if the user forgets to charge their phone, they may well forget to charge the charger, but that’s not a serious concern as the device charges even under artificial light.

In terms of charging times, it takes three to four hours to

charge from any USB port and can even charge an attached device while it charges itself via solar power, meaning that your customers should never be without the ability to talk freely on their phones.

This solar charger will save the day when you run out of juice

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WD Caviar® Green™ WD Caviar Green GP333M. 1TB capacity

Power-saving Hard Drives • IntelliPower: A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate, and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

• IntelliSeek: Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

• NoTouch ramp load technology: The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring better drive protection in transit as well as significantly less wear to the recording head and media.

• Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR): Employs PMR technology to achieve even greater areal density.

• Low power spin-up: WD Caviar Green drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads.

Reduced Power Consumption Environmentally Responsible Cool and Quiet WD Caviar Green SATA hard drives reduce power consumption by up to 40% compared to standard desktop drives and offer best-in-class acoustics and operating temperature. Based on WD’s exclusive GreenPower™ technology, these drives are designed to deliver power savings as the primary attribute. By using environmentally-conscious PCs with our WD Caviar Green drives on board, large organizations with many desktop computers can minimize their carbon footprint and save real money on electricity costs.

Cooler | Quieter | Eco-friendlier

• Advanced power technology: Electronic components deliver best-inclass low power consumption for reduced power requirements and increased reliability.

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MARKETPLACE

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Touch and green key for Asus Vendor looks to Bamboo-zle the competition as it launches its wood-based laptop and touchscreen Eee device... sus took advantage of the Stuff Live Consumer Electronics Show at the end of October to show off two of its latest products.

First up is the vendor’s Bamboo Notebook, which was first announced as the EcoBook back in June 2007. It’s finally approaching retail, with the firm proclaiming its green credentials as the defining unique selling point of the new device.

The firm sees the device, which is mainly constructed from bamboo, as a key product as it looks to position itself as the greenest PC vendor in the channel.

It was also showing off a new direction for its Eee line of PCs,

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debuting its touchscreen variety in the UK for the first time.

The Eee Top 1602 series is a range of touchscreen computers that the firm claims have all the functionality of a regular desktop touchscreen, but at a much lower cost.

The firm is hoping that the device will prove to be the ideal expansion of its Eee brand and its reputation as being an easy-to-use computer range, with it positioning the product as ‘foolproof’ for even the least proficient of users.

No information concerning the launch of the two products have been announced, but keep an eye on the PC Retail website for the latest details.

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MARKETPLACE

A case of Spedo-ing off the shelf VIP unleashes Thermaltake’s latest PC chassis, designed to provide a cool running PC while looking good... hermaltake has debuted a new PC, which it is describing as an “engineering and technical masterpiece”.

The Spedo full tower case is designed to be as tidy and as cool as possible, with Thermaltake taking several design decisions to ensure that the case helps the hardware contained within stay as cool and as neat as is possible.

The firm claims that it has introduced “a multitude of innovative ventilation features”, which help to keep the device cool.

It is joined by the vendor’s advanced thermal chamber design, which divides the case into several sections, each

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isolating the CPU, GPU and PSU to help keep its temperature low.

In addition, it also features cable routing management, which keeps cables secured behind exclusive plastic covers behind the motherboard, which also helps assist the cases’ Fancool 8, which allows the case to support up to eight fans, to maintain airflow.

Exclusive distributor VIP said it has high hopes for the product. “The Spedo chassis is an exciting new design for Thermaltake and as the sole UK distributor, we are looking forward to introducing this case to the UK market,” commented product manager Victoria Davies.

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MARKETPLACE

The latest Medion laptop is made for multimedia

Medion guns for multimedia market Widescreen HD display and Freeview combine to offer customers strong product edion has taken the wraps off its latest laptop offering, which it hopes will help re-enforce its multimedia range.

The Medion Akoya P6612 features Intel Centrino 2 technology, a 320GB hard drive, 4GB RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS 256MB GDDR3, giving it the ability to handle any multimedia experience users could throw at it.

In addition, the laptop comes with a 16-inch widescreen high definition display and Freeview thanks to its built-in DVB-T tuner. It also has a multi-format DVD/CD burner and a HDMI port, allowing users to make the

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most of the multimedia capabilities of the laptop.

It also comes with a built-in webcam and microphone, ensuring that users can communicate out of the box.

And in these days of increased worry over security, potential customers could be swayed by the inclusion of a fingerprint scanner.

Bundled in the box is also a protective carry bag, remote for the Freeview tuner and USB optical mouse. It also comes with Microsoft Works 9.0, Medion Home Cinema Suite, Nero Essentials, Corel Draw Essentials 3 and a 90-day trial of Bullguard Internet Security Suite, in addition to Microsoft Vista Home Premium.

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MARKETPLACE

Hallmark Card Studio 2009 hits stores Avanquest ends your search for the perfect card vanquest has released the 2009 version of Hallmark’s Card Studio Deluxe, with the publisher positing the software as the ideal way to make personal Christmas cards, as well as cards and invitations for every other occasion that your customers can think of.

The software is the official product of the UK’s largest greetings cards publisher and can be used to create a range of projects, including greeting cards, stickers, invitations, calendars, photo frames, stationary, scrapbooks and

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certificates, all in three easy steps, meaning it can be used by PC experts and lay people alike.

It comes with a digital photo editor, which can be used for correcting photographs, removing red eye and adding special effects, to ensure that they are perfect before use.

There’s an event planner, as well, to keep track of when to send cards, and a Hallmark sentiment library with a raft of pre-written, but customisable messages.

It also gives users the ability to send Hallmark e-cards over the internet, but with the high production values associated with a normal card.

The software can be used to create a range of projects, such as cards.

HOW LONG DO YOU SPEND ON THE PHONE SOURCING AND PRICING STOCK? Brigantia Group members all have unlimited access to BRIGANTIA PARTFINDER at no extra charge. PARTFINDER shows BRIGANTIA preferential prices and stock levels across 15 suppliers saving not only money but time too!

PARTFINDER can search by description, part codes and supplier; it even has a few more subtle search tools to allow you to refine the results from our more than 100,000 SKUs listed.

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NEW LOOK, SAME SOLID VALUE. 124 PCRetail December

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MARKETPLACE

NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2009

APPLE IPOD TOUCH

Security software Distributor: Blue Solutions Contact Number: 0118 9898 2222 Price: £39.99

MP3 player Distributor: Westcoast Contact Number: 0118 912 6000 Price: 32GB £289

he first thing you need to detection rate – the same know about Norton impressive score as Kaspersky.

Internet Security 2009 is Since this is the full NIS that it’s fast. Symantec has package, you also get spent years working to shed Norton’s ‘quiet’ two-way its reputation for sluggish firewall. The name isn’t an software and its latest effort exaggeration: in all of our tests sets new standards for it remained completely silent. responsiveness. Click on the And it’s comprehensive and System Tray icon and the main highly configurable. interface leaps up in a fraction Other features include the of a second. identity safe, which enables It’s lightweight, too. We used you send to personal to a bare Vista system that credentials over the web took 35 seconds to book to an without having to type them in, idle desktop, and a browser with memory Symantec deserves plug-in to keep usage of 475MB. praise for delivering you safe from Installing Norton phishing sites excellent protection and browser increased boot in such a nimble time by six exploits. With seconds, and package. Some will 2009 this raised the RAM component still be wary, but if footprint by a gains Firefox ever a brand mere 22MB. compatibility. deserved a second Kaspersky All told, NIS is Internet Security now a realistic chance, this is it. eats 15MB more. alternative to Norton tries to keep out of Kaspersky. Just two gripes your way while your working, prevent us from placing it atop too. By default, scans are now the A-List. First, the interface is only run while the computer is over-complicated. And idle. And the new Norton second, Kaspersky is cheaper.

Insight system reduces CPU But neither of those issues is a and hard disk workload by show-stopper, and Symantec ignoring processes found to be deserves praise for delivering virus-free by other Norton users. excellent protection in such a More importantly, when nimble package. Some people pitched against our selection will still be wary, but if ever a of current malware threats, NIS brand deserved a second 2009 scored a 92 per cent chance, this is it.

he iPod touch was always atrocious, however, with no a canny marketing move bass and poor mid-range.

– an iPhone without the The other main addition is a phone, enabling Apple to sell Nike+ receiver – basically a the touchscreen experience glorified pedometer that can to those who weren’t ready connect wirelessly to Nike+ for a new mobile contract. running shoes and record Now, a year statistics about Now, a year down down the line, your run. It can Apple has also feed the line, Apple has unveiled the unveiled the second- progress updates secondthrough you generation touch. At headphones (to generation first glance, little touch. At first alert you, for glance, little example, when appears to have appears to you’re half-way changed but the have changed, through a run), new device is slimmer and can skip to but the device and feels even is now slimmer your pre– about 8mm selected ‘power thinner. deep – and in song’ if you need your hand it feels even thinner, extra motivation for the last as it shares the contoured back half mile. of the iPhone 3G. If you’re a runner looking It also has a few features for a flash device that’ll keep that were previously iPhoneyou on track, or you want only, such as buttons to control some App Store goodness the volume and a built-in without getting into a speaker, so you can share your contract – the touch remains music and videos with the the most sumptuous music world. Sound quality from this is player around.

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MARKETPLACE

DISTRIBUTOR DIRECTORY Abacom

01483 303455

wabacom.co.uk

Avanquest

01752 318078

avanquest-solutions.co.uk

Avnet

01344 662000

avnet.com

Blue solutions

0870 402 0000

bluesolutions.co.uk

Bluepoint

0870 121 8001

bluepoint.net

Broadband first

087 078 70387

broadbandfirst.com

CCI Distribution

01423 704 700

ccidistribution.co.uk

Centerprise

01256 378 000

centerprise.co.uk

Computer 2000

08700 603 344

computer2000.co.uk

Computer Gear

0121 503 0666

computergear.co.uk

Direktek

01494 471 100

direktek.co.uk

Enta Technologies

0870 770 9588

entaonline.com.

Ezy

0845 050 6002

ezyinfotech.com

Focus Mulitmedia

01889 570 156

focusmm.co.uk

Gem

01279 822 822

gem.co.uk

Ingram Micro

0870 405 3000

ingrammicro.co.uk

Interactive Ideas

0208 8051000

interactiveideas.com

J&J Associates

01752 336 465

jj-associates.com

JLT Computers

0870 225 5558

jltcomputers.co.uk

Keyboard Company

0845 205 5588

keyboardco.com

KMS Components

02920 713 713

kmscomponents.com

M2M direct

020-867-63030

m2m-direct.co.uk

Medea

0870 350 0330

medea.co.uk

Midwich

01379 649200

midwich.com

Meroncourt

01462 680 060

trade.meroncourt.co.uk

MT Electronics

0121 331 8970

mt-electronics.com

Nanopoint

08701 620 818

nanopoint.co.uk

Realtime Distribution

01480 435 881

realtimeonline.co.uk

RET UK

01722 341 234

retuk.com

SDA Trading

0161 819 1515

sdatrading.com

SJ Software

01282 865 500

sjsoftware.co.uk

Target Components

01977 739 300

targetcomponents.co.uk

Ultra-X

+31 252 533 284

uxd.eu

VIP

0871 622 7500

vip-computers.com/uk

Widget

01438 842362

widget.co.uk

www.pcretailmag.com

PCRetail December 127

OFF THE RECORD This month: This month, the PC Retail paparazzi was at the WoW: Wrath of the Lich King launch and the CRN Awards...

CRN AWARDS 2008 The recent CRN Awards provided the channel with an evening of glitz and glamour, in London’s Battersea Park. Amongst the many faces there were Gem’s senior product manager Richard Stickler (right) and marketing manager Neil Handa (centre).

ABOVE: PC Retail deputy editor Ben Furfie gets to grips with the mechanical bull laid on by Intel and Dell at the post awards event. Suffice to say, he won’t be leaving to become a cowboy anytime soon...

128 PCRetail December

www.pcretailmag.com

OFF THE RECORD

Send your pictures to andrew wooden@intentmedia.co.uk

PCA chief executive Keith Warburton enjoys his night of power amongst the other awards judges...

LIFE’S A LICH Never has the word hoarde – or Horde – been so appropriate. We went to HMV on Oxford Street for the launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and managed to get some snaps of the masses queuing up to be amongst the first in the country to get their hands on the hotly-anticipated game. How anticipated? Well, an estimated 2,000 gamers turned up on the night with the last in the line not getting their copy until the wee hours of the morning...

Ben West and Scott Hamsher e queue. Ben queue but Sc (right) was seco ott would later nd in the collapse from Scott came ar exhaustion... by ound, Ben ha the time d taken his pla person in the ce and beca UK to buy the me the first game...

www.pcretailmag.com

PCRetail December 129

BACK PAGE

“

QUOTES

OF THE MONTH

“They’ve never liked us because of the name.

We’re working with them now to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It was a genuine mistake. It was just copyright infringement and they’ve given us a slap on the wrist.”

“The webbooks were selling well, it’s just that customers preferred XP” A source at Carphone Warehouse discusses the reasons behind the retailers’ recall of the Linux-based devices

“Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader.”

“I personally believe that if it is the right thing to do as a twenty-year decision, then it is the right thing do. But we need to have an environment in which our shareholders feel that there is a good chance of us making a return. If we cannot have that environment, then this is not the time to be taking on sure-fire losses.”

Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang announces that he will stand down from his position as soon a replacement can be found for him.

BT CEO Ian Livingstone outlines the reasons behind the company’s possible abandonment of plans for upgrading to fibre-optic broadband.

An employee of welsh indie Mike-O-Soft, discusses selling unlicensed software and its consequences.

IN THE HOTSEAT Name: Mark Needham Company: Widget

widget Describe yourself in three words: Founder of Widget So, what does your job involve?

Employing and empowering great people to run a distribution company.

How did you get your current job?

I got the sack from my previous one and was so angry that I didn’t want to work for anyone else again. That was 25 years ago.

What did you want to do when you were younger?

Run my own company.

If you could have anything for free, what would it be?

If I had something for free, I might not value it enough.

NEXT MONTH Printing Devices: A look at the various inkjets and Multi Function Devices available on today’s market.

VoIP Phones: An overview of the latest developments in communications technology.

ISP’s: A run down of a wide range if Internet Service Providers and the services that they offer.

Frontline news, Agony Uncle, News from the MTA, PCA, Brigantia, ITACS, NASCR and more only in PC Retail...

LATEST

NEWS STRAIGHT TO YOUR MOBILE

BOOKMARK US IN YOUR PHONE:

mobile.pcretailmag.com 130 PCRetail December

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