BenQ plans mini-notebook assault

BenQ Australia is planning its first foray in the small form factor (SFF) and mobile Internet devices (MID) space.

The vendor will release a new range of SFF devices in November and MIDs early next year. It will also introduce its N-Screen product, which is a full high-definition LCD monitor that can be combined with a PC and features TV functionality. SFF notebooks will be priced from $499-$1000.

BenQ has been relatively quiet in the local market and according to IDC PC analyst, Felipe Rego, the vendor barely occupied one per cent of the notebook market in Q2 this year. It has, however, continued to perform well in the projectors segment.

“We’re back with a vengeance and we have the products to prove it,” BenQ managing director, Philip Newton, said. “When we acquired Siemens Mobile, we divested a lot of the time of the R&D team to develop new mobile technologies.

“The problem was our traditional bricks and mortar started to become a bit me-too and what we did intentionally at that stage was withdraw our marketing activity. All those R&D people are back and have been working for two years coming up with these new designs and concepts.”

Newton aimed to target the communications, channel and retail sectors.

“We have very significant interests from the communications market and we’re talking to some rather heavy hitters at the moment,” he said.

Newtown claimed the vendor has about 1000 resellers in the local market, but he would like to boost that figure to 4500 by the end of next year. BenQ is distributed through Synnex, Altech Computers, Ingram Micro and Multimedia Technology.

“It’s an area that we’ve worked on in the past seven months and we’re looking to address as many resellers as we can,” he said.

Resellers can join BenQ’s partner program, which consists of two levels: Authorised and Strategic. Newtown said once the reseller they consistently grow their BenQ business during the first three months can become Strategic partners. At the Strategic level, partners get access to rebates, marketing support, loan products and point of sale material.

“Our primary aim over the next three years is to build a solid reseller base and ensure good communication with them – without that it just won’t work,” Newton said.

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