Iomega expands India footprint

US-based data storage major Iomega Corporation is plann-ing to expand its
India operat-ions. The company is looking at adding more partners and venturing
into new market seg-ments with its set of products. "India is among the top
priori-ties for Iomega as of now, and we want to expand our channel base in this
region as well as take our products into new market segments," informed,
Wong Chuan Yong, Iomega Asia Pacific Product Manager.

Targeting the SME segment in the region, the company is relying on REV, a
patented external storage device for small and medium businesses, to drive its
sales in the Indian region for the coming months.

"REV is a rigid removable disc and has higher storage capacity of 35
GB/90 GB (35 GB in normal storage and 90 GB in compressed form). We are pricing
this at around $399 which is almost half the cost of the existing storage tapes
that are available in the market today," he added.

As for the plans to tap new categories for its products, the company is
planning to market its products in three different markets-tape replacement,
backup and archival solution market for SME and the desktop backup market as
well.

"With the government push-ing the PC penetration agenda, desktop segment
is going to be really exciting in this region. We would be moving with the
market dynamics in this region and we would go towards the extent of tying up
with PC man-ufacturers for bundling our products-if the market condi-tions
demand it," informed Yong.

Presently, the company is working with three national distributors-Ingram
Micro, Neoteric and Tech Pacific to sell its product range in the region.
"There are about 70 channel partners that work under these distributors and
we plan to increase this number to 100 by the end of March 2005. This expansion
is being done keep-ing in mind our increased focus towards the SME segment and
the new segments that would be targeted as part of this," he added.

Currently, Iomega Corpora-tion's B2C (business to consumers) sales of its
products such as ZIP drives, external hard discs, DVD writer and external floppy
drives, constitute about 80 percent of the sales in India. The remaining 20
percent are generated from B2B segments such as REV and NAS (network attached
storage).

Zia Askari

New Delhi (CyberMedia News)