By Editor
A feature in many power retailers’ IT offering, Edimax is now on a mission to build a channel gateway to market for its range of networking products and home IT solutions. Milad Jabbour, CEO at regional Edimax partner GCT, shares with us this new strategy
Discuss your market strategy as the Edimax brand continues to grow in the market
We handle the Middle East and African markets from our office at Jebel Ali Free Zone. Since our establishment in 2010, we were mainly focused on the retail market and to position Edimax in a way that people understand the value and the quality of the product. Since then, we have successfully represented Edimax in many countries. Majority of the consumer products in the region go through the channel market though and it is with this in mind that we have really started to focus on the channel for the last two years. Today we have a showcase demo at Computer Plaza in Bur Dubai that will be for the whole year. We will display our latest products there till the end of the year and this will be an effective way to reach the channel market.
Across the region, we are appointing distributors in every market and having already done so in some while the process is underway in others. In two years, we expect to cover all the markets we have in our sights.
Our product strategy remains to offer products with lots of innovative features customers will not find in any other brand. Secondly, Edimax covers many more segments including SOHO, SMBs and Pro in addition to our home line of products.
Networking is a traditional focus area for Edimax. Discuss some of the new products and technologies in this space
Today in the market we have the 3-in-1 router/ access point/range extender and the next month we are going to launch a 5-in-1 incorporating all these features plus WIPS and Client. The advantages of incorporating all these features in one single device are myriad. For channel partners, you automatically reduce five SKUs to just one and yet serve all these categories saving on logistics. You also save money on fees that are usually levied on telecommunication products. In addition, with our plug and search capabilities, you do not need engineers to install and configure. Most importantly, end users save a lot of money from paying for just a single as opposed to multiple gadgets.
Discuss some of the Home solutions from Edimax in the market right now
In 2014 to 2015, we are much focused on lifestyle products mainly in smart home solutions such as networking, dedicated baby monitors and smart power switches. In home networking, our main gadget is the multi-function device which can be used as a router, a range expander, or as an access point. We have a range of products in this space with 802.11AC technology. This puts us puts us in a very unique position being the only few vendors with AC access point or an AC expander. So, multi-function products are a real growth area for us.
The range-expander market is particularly important as a lot of consumers in the region are in the need for range expanders as the routers supplied by the Telcos are simply not sufficient to cover their entire houses. Our 3-in-1 range expander is the perfect solution for them as it also doubles-up as an access point and client. The client mode is very important especially for people who have smart TVs, the challenge of a smart TV being how to get internet into the TV without laying cables throughout the house. This device makes all this possible. Our range expanders tend to be very small as well and incorporate power supply plugging directly into the wall. In addition, we have developed an app allowing you to configure and manage your expander through your smartphone.
IP cameras are another focus area for us. These come with plug-and-view technology which translates into simply downloading an application, powering on the camera and you are good to go with very little configuration required. This is the direction we are headed for consumer products with devices they can easily install themselves.
Discuss some of your enterprise solutions
On the enterprise side, we have redesigned our switch line-up and we are currently focusing on PoE switches with very high-power ports so that all the ports in the switch can be used to power on devices. The other area we are looking at is the enterprise wireless networking with the Edimax Pro range of products which will address the SMB to enterprise wireless needs. We also have a line of IP cameras build with the enterprise in mind. From an enterprise perspective, we have the wireless networking, access points, the switches and the surveillance cameras and to tie all these systems together with a central monitoring system.