Despite Aghtan’s concerns about white-box losing its grip on Australia’s desktop PC market, IDC’s Sager says this could only happen if several multinationals made "a very concerted effort".
"If all of a sudden Acer, Dell and HP decide for six months in a row to target the white-box market very hard and really beef up their channel relationships, then white-box would really be hurt.
"The thing is it’s really expensive for a multinational to do that. It’s easier for them to be the branded offering alongside a whitebox assembler."
The biggest wildcard in the Australian and global PC market is this year’s US$2 billion acquisition of IBM’s personal computing division by Lenovo -- China’s largest computer maker.
"If Lenovo were to come into consumer, or into white-box below the IBM ThinkCentre product range, it could have a huge impact on the white-box market," Sager says.
"It depends on what Lenovo decides to do. It doesn’t want to sacrifice the IBM brand and will probably want to make sure Lenovo would be separate. It’s definitely the most critical question for white-box."
So is Lenovo the 800-pound gorilla preparing to squash Australia’s white-box market? It’s a question of ‘wait and see’, says Lenovo offerings manager David Nicol. "Lenovo’s strength is in the consumer and small business desktop market in China, so we have the opportunity over time to bring new products to Australia," Nicol says.
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| Lenovo’s Nicol: Targeting white-box’s one-stop advantage |
Meanwhile IBM/Lenovo intends to target white-box’s one-stop IT shop advantage. "Having a local presence is one way those suppliers are able to deliver some benefit to their customers.
"We are looking to continue to work with our business partners who have a regional presence, for them to supply a Lenovo PC but for them also to gain significant revenue and margin from selling warranty upgrades, wireless, broadband and peripheral products that complement our offering," Nicol says.
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