Wacom eyes retail market

Amrita Tejasvi New Delhi, Sep 26

While holding a meet with its dealers in the capital for the
first time, Wacom put forward its strategies to invest more in the retail sector
and make its products available on the shelves of channel partners, in order to
increase its visibility among consumers. The company announced that it would
provide up to 50 percent discount on demo products to dealers and would extend
more support for developing demo zones.

While unveiling the strategy, Wacom highlighted that besides
resellers and multi-branded retail outlets, the company would showcase its
products with channel partners of Apple Computer, as this product is also
primarily targeted at the graphics and animation market.

With the objective to strengthen its position in the market, the
company has planned to double the number of channel partners from 60 to

120 in the nest six months. The company has also decided to open 10 demo centers
in the top seven cities, which includes Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,
Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad within six months.

"The idea behind this strategy is to give the product, as
well as the brand, recognition among consumers. Indian market is not as strong
as compared to US, Japan and Europe, in terms of penabled technology, so we want
to strengthen it. We want visiting customers to see the products and enquire
about it. In order for that to happen, it is essential that the products are
showcased in a stylish way," remarked Anil Chandna, Country Representative-India,
Wacom Singapore.

Commenting on the market position and business opportunities of
penabled technology in India, Sanjay Kathuria, Manager-Channel Sales, Neoteric
Infomatique, a distributor of Wacom, commented that this technology is preferred
by professionals in specific verticals like animation, automotive designing,
fashion designing and other areas where creativity is the core, and it is yet to
become a known name among general consumers.

"In the last one year, there has been 108 percent growth in
sale of Wacom products which indicates that this technology is picking up in the
market. The company now wants to make itself more visible for which it is ready
to offer support to its dealers, and it has a lot of scope in future,"
informed Nitin Aggarwal, MD, Trifin Information Technology, a Wacom disti.