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t in the making


client, which means it’s not a high street sale, but might sell well to people who’ve already got a BlackBerry. Eighty per cent of our devices sold last year were smartphones and 80 per cent of those were BlackBerries. When RIM launched the PlayBook they decided they were going to make it exclusive to the retail channel, but it’s service providers like us that have the largest concentration of active BlackBerry customers that we could sell the PlayBook to.”


Samsung’s original Galaxy Tab, launched last year, also created conflict in the channel, says Eaton. Confusion around pricing led to poor sales and stock surpluses. Now, Arrow stocks non-Apple tablets on an as-required basis. Eaton tips the trend for BYOD, or Bring Your Own Devices, as one that could take off in the UK next year. More companies, especially larger corporates, are looking at simply subsidising employees to buy their own handsets rather than provide one on the business account. “When you go into the details, there are still things to work out,” says Eaton, “Like what happens if someone loses their phone just before a business trip and can’t afford to replace it. There’s also issues around credit risks of individuals versus corporates – do you bar the director of ABC limited because his personal direct debit’s bounced, for example?”


Chris Barrow is Advanced Technology Marketing Manager at Avaya, the vendor which has embraced tablets more than most with its Android-powered Flare device. “I’ve been personally astounded by the speed


with which BYOD has taken off,” Barrow says. “From a buzzword 12 months ago, I’ve sat in at least two customer meetings with partners in the small to the mid-size space who are not supplying devices at all. And I mean everything, laptops, PCs tablets, smartphones – nothing at all.”


The beauty of BYOD for resellers, says Barrow, is that it makes it much easier to deal with turmoil in the mobile market. “The bad news is that I’m not sure I can name a specific device or manufacturer that we or our resellers should put their money into,” he says. “The great thing for us is that we don’t actually care.”


Avaya’s strategy is to target the top operating systems (iOS, Android and Blackberry) and not worry too much about the end device. To support this, Avaya’s licensing model is per user, rather than per device. That way if someone swaps from, say, an iPad to a Playbook it doesn’t matter, they just download the same app from a different source.


Barrow says that resellers with a more traditional background


are still learning how to navigate mobile and make the most of airtime contracts and tablets, and they’re looking to vendors and distributors for advice. That’s a view which, as Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, Julien Parven obviously agrees with. “There’s definitely been a certain ambivalence towards adopting mobile,” says Parven, “People from outside view it as quite a complex area to operate in. Our role as a distributor is very much about demystifying those complexities and making it as simple and straightforward as possible.”


Peripheral vision Parven’s tip for portfolio investment is to look carefully at lesser known brands like Asus and Acer, he says, because they’re coming up with interesting ideas from the periphery. “They’re looking at convergence from the other way,” he says. “Not from mobile to tablet but looking at their heritage as a laptop manufacturer and making the tablet act as a screen for a keyboard docking station. I think that type of product is going to cause a lot of demand within the whole tablet sector.”


HP Touchpad To advertise in


contact The Sales Team on 01895 454411 www.comms-dealer.com


COMMS DEALER OCTOBER 2011 69


The important thing to remember is that no matter how confusing the choice of platforms and devices is to those of us inside telecommunications, it’s going to be that bit more complex for our customers. The value add of the future is in helping to bring any and all technology choices into their comms strategy, whatever size their business. If you’re not an expert on what’s out there already, it’s time to start brushing up on the gadget sites.


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