Netgear’s renewed channel focus

Phillip Pyo, product marketing director for Netgear, will be visiting Australia from the US to attend the launch. According to the networking vendor, it is an opportunity for partners to learn about the technologies embedded within Netgear products including dual-band 2.45GHz and 5GHz, Push N Connect/WiFi Protected Setup [WPS], metamaterials technology and how they will benefit customers.

Ryan Parker, managing director A/NZ for Netgear told CRN the presentation of the Wireless-N family of networking products for the digital home will be a highlight of the night.

“We see the consumer space as a growth market, which will be driven by the ongoing take up of broadband and the awareness that ISPs are generating with regard to networking within the home,” he said.

The event will be attended by Netgear distributor and reseller partners, as well as the media. Parker claimed the vendor has several channel initiatives in the pipeline that are connected to Wednesday’s launch.

“We’ll be rolling out training nationally for resellers to get up to speed with the products,” he explained. “We’ve also increased the warranty on switching products to be for lifetime, which is fairly significant.”

The lifetime warranty is an indication of Netgear’s emphasis on reliability and forms an integral part of the vendor’s message to resellers, claimed Parker.

“Case in point, today I was talking to a gentleman who had bought Netgear products in 1999 and they were still running in a school in 2008. Reliability has always been a cornerstone of Netgear’s philosophy,” he said.

Looking ahead, Parker identifies storage as a growth market in Australia and consequently Netgear is looking to develop its offerings in this space. He also claimed the networking vendor is focusing on strengthening relationships with reseller partners.

“We’re working more closely with our resellers to develop opportunities with them on our traditional products like switching and wireless products. There’s a lot of activity out there among our partners and our biggest challenge is making sure we’re looking after them as best we can,” he said.

Parker also noted that the SMB market was likely to experience continued growth in the coming year.

“SMBs will continue to grow their networks as their businesses expand and they start looking at deploying things like VoIP,” he said. “I predict it will be quite a buoyant year.”