Taipei, Taiwan – BenQ’s efforts to establish the company as a major player in notebook technology will be in the hands of solution providers.
Peter Chen, vice-president and general manager of digital media at BenQ, said the company’s go to market strategy for its Joybook notebook in
North America will use solution providers such as VARs, system integrators and resellers/retailers.
As reported in ITBusiness.ca on Monday, BenQ will begin shipping its newly created line of Joybooks, an Intel Centrino-based notebook for business and entertainment, to the Canadian marketplace first sometime before the end of 2003.
“”We have to deal with the channel and build an infrastructure to make them ready to sell,”” Chen said.
He added that BenQ, because of the competition and the size of the U.S. market alone, will take a patient approach with the Joybook in North America.
The company has already launched the product in Asia Pacific and in Europe.
In Canada, BenQ has distribution partnerships with ALC Micro, Comtronic, Daiwa, Supercom and Synnex Canada.
However, the channel strategy for Canada and the U.S. for the Joybook is still under development, along with new channel programs for its Qreseller umbrella plan.
The Joybook comes in three models: the 3000 with a 15-inch screen and built-in Nvidia chip; the 5000 with a 15-inch screen and built-in ATI Radeon chip; and the 8000, which has a 15.2-inch screen with a 15:10 aspect ratio for big screen experience.
The Joybook 8000 also comes with a 24x DVD/CD-RW combo drive.
The Joybook has 200 nits of brightness. Other notebook manufacturers are using 150 nits screens, Chen said. “”We have to ensure TV quality on the Joybook,”” he added.
Chen went further to say BenQ’s line of LCD TVs can be a complement to Joybooks that support HDTV.
According to Chen, the Joybook can also be a wireless receiver, allowing users to catch up on soap operas while at work.
BenQ released two LCD TVs at the Computex show. The models come in 26-inch and 30-inch sizes and have a brightness rate of 600 nits.
Currently, all Joybooks are based on Intel’s Centrino chip, but BenQ might incorporate AMD chips as well as Transmeta chips. Chen said as of today there are no plans in place to manufacture Joybooks with AMD or Transmeta chips. The Qmedia operating system will focus on making devices easier for Joybook and it is similar to the Windows Media Center operating system, but Chen stressed the Joybook runs Windows XP and that Qmedia is an add on.
BenQ used Computex to launch a slew of products such as monitors, digital cameras, MP3 player/recorders, DVD recorders and smart phones.
