Blue Zone trades in laptops for tablets

Previously, Blue Zone stocked a range of notebook products however declining margins forced owner Stuart Charlton to reassess his business.

In June 2006 Charlton told CRN Blue Zone would also start stocking ultra mobile PCs (UMPCs) and other products like Vodafone mobile connect cards.

However at the start of 2007 Charlton told CRN that Blue Zone had done away with notebook products and was now concentrating on selling tablet and UMPCs.

“With notebooks we were just selling one or two boxes with the standard Windows operating system. Tablets and UMPCs allow us to sell a box and a solution to customers,” said Charlton.

Charlton said the business has lost customers who were only interested in purchasing a notebook.

“Customers that didn’t have tablet computing intension would go to one of the 15 other resellers sitting in North Sydney. You’re always going to get a situation where people are going to call up requesting products like printers or servers. We can sell the hardware, but not the services that go with those products,” he said.

Charlton said evidence of Blue Zone’s success in changing its business strategy can be seen by its financial successful.

“We have seen a growth rate of around 220 percent between this financial year and last financial year,” he said.