Acer Inc. has taken a big step towards its goal of becoming North America’s biggest notebook vendor — strictly through channel sales — by getting access to Ingram Micro Canada’s vast pool of resellers.
“”Ingram brings us large reach, depth to grow our business rapidly,”” said Terry Tomacek, general
manager of Acer Canada, after announcing an agreement with the distributor.
The deal follows a similar pact with Ingram Micro in the U.S.
Initially, only laptops and monitors will be available to Ingram VARs here. However, Tomacek hopes that early next year Acer’s desktop computers and servers will be added to the product mix.
“”We’re very excited to have Acer come on board,”” said Ingram Micro Canada president Murray Wright. “”We see it as a complimentary strategy to our exitsing portfolio.””
The distributor’s Canadian resellers have already given the move a good reception, he added.
While Wright couldn’t cite a particular model or models which he thinks will score quickly with the channel, he did outline part of Ingram’s strategy for Acer’s notebooks.
“”One of the opportunities for us is looking at large bids and schools and marketplaces that have a lot of focus on price competitiveness,”” he said. “”We want to ensure we give our resellers the best opportunities by having the right stable of products.””
Until now, Acer distribution has been handled by smaller players including EMJ Data Systems (now part of Synnex Canada), Supercom and ALC Micro. Tomacek has no complaints about their efforts. “”They did a fantastic job for us,”” he said.
But, he added, “”in Canada, Acer has been a pretty small player.”” Ingram is needed to make the company bulk up.
Actually, it was bulky until four year ago, much to the dismay of resellers. The Acer name was all over — in white boxes, peripherals, and desktops, selling direct and online as well as through channels. That’s because the Taiwan-based company had too many divisions, each with its own marketing strategy.
After selling off or consolidating a number of units in 2000, the company decided to go to an all-channel strategy. In addition, it prices all product the same, regardless of customer.
That way, he said, resellers “”aren’t going to wake up on a Saturday morning to see something in a flyer below the cost they pay, or see their best account was taken direct by a multinational vendor.””
The company’s goal is both large and modest — to be Canada’s biggest notebook vendor through channel sales alone. That standard cuts out competitors who sell direct to large retail stores and businesses or have online stores, such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
According to Evans Reserach, in the first quarter of this year Dell and Toshiba shared 25 per cent of the Canadian laptop market, but Dell pulled slightly ahead in the second quarter. Hewlett-Packard was in third place, followed by IBM.
Acer is grouped by Evans among Tier 2 global vendors, who share a combined 9 per cent of the market.
