A rousing applause for 2016 VAR COC Awards winners

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The 2016 edition of the VAR COC (Choice of channel) Awards concluded on a grand note at a glittering awards ceremony held in the majestic St. Regis hotel in Dubai. This year also marked the 10th edition of the VAR COC Awards, the premier awards for the region’s ICT channel.

The awards gala was well attended by the industry’s who’s who. The winning brands received a rousing applause for their stellar performances over the past year.

The winners were chosen through an online poll that ran on www.varonline.com for nearly three weeks based on nominations received from the industry. The online polling process included voting from a wide channel database. Voters were instructed to vote on basis of the Brand’s channel commitment, product availability, pricing, market performance and mindshare.

The Brands that emerged with most votes from the survey were frontrunners to win in the respective categories because of the high percentage of weightage given to channel votes. However, besides the channel voting, the final leg of the polling process included votes from an esteemed jury panel of three which consisted of Mr. Krishnamurthy, former MD of Acer Middle east, Mr. Tarek Kuzbari, formed MD of Kaspersky Lab and Mr. Philip Hughes, formed GM of APC Middle East. This helped calibrate the overall voting and help adjudge the eventual winners across different categories.

Vivek Sharma, Founder CEO of VAR marketing LLC and JNS Media International MFZE said, “This year marked a major milestone for the awards which are the longest running in the ICT channel. We have put in place a very substantially comprehensive voting process that helps decide and applaud the deserving winners from among nominated brands in the survey.”

The voting has always seen an increase in the number of votes registered. Also adding to the increase is the fact that several of the nominated brands ensured that their reseller partners took part in the voting. More votes registered mean better validated verdicts.

The sponsors of the awards evening included Dell who was the Platinum sponsor of the event, Kaspersky Lab and Linksys, both Gold sponsors as well as Epson, Telelink, AOC and WD, the silver sponsors. Promise Technology was the gifts sponsors and Touchmate were the raffle sponsors.

The first awards presented in the evening was Projector Brand of the Year. Epson was the winner of the category yet again, proving its popularity with the ICT channel. Similarly, HP remains unstoppable in the printer category as it walked away with the second award of the day as the Printer Brand of the Year.

AOC sprung a surprise when it emerged the winner of the Display Brand of the Year, in all possibility winning approval from voters for its vast range of monitors with innovative technologies.

WD wrested the top honours in the Storage Devices Brand of the Year category, perhaps riding on the advantages of its commitment to stable regional presence along with an exhaustive product range and channel commitment.

Linksys, a consumer segment favorite emerged the inaugural SOHO Networking brand of the year winner while one of its leading competitors D-Link walked away with top honours in the SMB Networking brand of the year category.

QNAP, a leading manufacturer of NAS solutions emerged the NAS Brand of the Year. Kaspersky Lab was the winner of the PC Security Software Brand of the Year for the third straight year. The Mobile Security Software Brand of the year category saw Norton emerge as the winner among nominees in the category.

In the Laptop Brand of the Year category, which saw a close fight between the top nominees, Dell edged ahead to win the top honours. Lenovo was the winner of the category Convertible Tablet Brand of the Year, a category of devices that is driving a resurgence in the industry.

In the smartphone awards categories, LG G4 won the award for The Smartphone with Best Design while Sony Mobile Xperia Z5 Premium got the top honours for the category Smartphone with Best Features.

OPPO F1 received the top recognition for the Best New Smartphone among shortlisted nominees while the winner of the Emerging Smartphone Brand of the Year was Magnus, a brand from the regional business group Telelink.

In the recognitions for the retailer categories, Carrefour was winner of the Innovative ICT Retailer of the Year distinction while Souq.com was winner of the ICT E-tailer of the Year category.
In the distribution award categories, Redington Gulf was handed the Mobility Distributor of the Year award while the winner of the Networking Distributor of the Year category was Aptec, an Ingram Micro company

The Component Distributor of the Year recognition went to Musallam Trading, a distributor with a sizeable portfolio of leading component brands in its portfolio

Trigon walked away with the top honours in the AV Distributor of the Year category from a shortlist of companies with strong portfolios of Audio Video hardware products.

Asbis won the Retail Distributor of the Year recognition, a recognition of the retail friendly portfolio it holds as well as a good reach into the retailing segment. The Emerging Distributor of the Year award went to Prime Technology Middle East

In the Editor’s choice awards, TP-LINK was awarded the Networking Innovations Vendor of the Year recognition. The Storage Innovations Brand of the Year went to SanDisk whereas Ricoh was chosen as the Projector Innovations Brand of the year.

In categories that recognize regional businesses, Touchmate was awarded the Regional Brand of the Year, completing a hatrick of wins for the company in this category. Telelink was recognized as the Visionary ICT Business Group of the Year for its diversified growth.

In reseller awards categories, New Trend Computers LLC was recognized as the Networking Reseller of the Year, Computer Care was chosen as the Mobility Reseller of the Year and the Champion Reseller of the Year distinction went to Promise Technology LLC.

Kamran Khayal, AVP at Trigon walked away with The Channel Executive of the Year honours in the only individual award category of the day.

In the final award presented on the evening, Dell was awarded the Brand of the Year recognition for its continued success with go to market execution and enhanced brand visibility.