White-books a way behind

While local box builders own the lion’s share of Australia’s desktop PC market, they contribute only a small portion of the notebooks sold in Australia each year.

The strengths that see white-box makers dominate the heavily commoditised desktop market are not helping them fight multinational vendors in the notebook arena, with white-books only making up 5.9 percent of Australia’s notebook market in the first quarter of this year.

Confident local system builders, such as TodayTech, feel it is only a matter of time before its white-book offerings see the same success in this country as white-boxes.

The white-box market has a decade head start on the white-book market but will soon catch up, says TodayTech marketing manager Jennifer Hsieh.

"White-book is parallel to where PC was 10 years ago. We really see a parallel between the two and we really believe it’s only a matter of time before the white-book concept will be as popular as the white-box concept," Hsieh says.

"The new technology and design is far more advanced from where white-books emerged years and years ago. Resellers need to build up their confidence and explore the hottest trend of mobile technology.  If they believe in their abilities, they are definitely ready for the next step in the notebook evolution."

Fellow Australian white-book builder, Optima, is optimistic about white-book’s potential – having recently fended off multinational vendors to win a contract to supply more than 2400 white-books to the Northern Territory’s Department of Employment, Education and Training.

As in the white-box market, a strong service offering is just as important as competitive pricing, says Optima managing director Cornel Ung.

"The Northern Territory deal is one of the biggest single orders we’ve received from a government department," Ung says.

State of play

White-book sales made up 5.9 percent of total notebook market in Q1 Market may improve in 2006 Until standardisation happen, white-book growth will be hampered       Source: IDC Australia

"They chose Optima because our price was competitive but also because of our service offering. We provide a service unit, with spare parts and replacement units, in all the places they specified. We’re also offering training services. We designed a training CD for them, to teach them how to use the software and the notebook."

Whereas the initial price difference in the desktop market between local and multinational offerings helped entrench white-box’s supremacy in Australia market, white-book entered a much more level playing field.

As such, Ung says it will "take a while" before white-book’s market share in Australia approaches that of white-box.

"Unfortunately multinational pricing is very, very aggressive at the moment, so I couldn’t see how white-box and whitebook will increase their market share in the short term," he says.

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