The 11th VAR COC Awards Gala was held on 26th April at the Shangri-la hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. The event felicitated winners in different categories of the industry’s most prestigious channel awards.
The sponsors of the event were Dell, Toshiba, Seagate, WD, AOC, Zoook, Kaspersky Lab, PNY, Touchmate, Dlink and Linksys.
The VAR COC Awards included nominations from the industry that were followed by online voting on www.varonline.com. The channel voted for their preferred choices and a select Jury vote helped validate the results. The survey ran from March until the second week of April and winners were declared on the basis of the survey results.
The Awards ceremony included a short address by Mr. Vivek Sharma, the CEO and founder of JNS Media International and publisher of VAR Magazine. During his address, he recalled the growth of the awards and the pioneering impact they have had in the region as the first ever awards for the ICT channel by a Media company.
Among the categories, the ‘Innovative Projector Brand of the Year’ was won by Epson, a brand that continues to be one with a wide array of projectors for all user segments and is constant with innovations
HP came on top as the Innovative Printer Brand of the Year, duly recognized for the new innovations continued reach into the channel and the market along with an extensive portfolio of printers and MFPs. AOC, a manufacturer that has one of the largest portfolios of monitors addressing all the segments was the Innovative Display Brand of the Year.
The ‘Innovative Storage Devices Brand of the Year’, a closely fought category went to Seagate, a recognition of its considerable storage devices/media portfolio, continued innovations and channel reach. The ‘Innovative Networking Brand of the Year’ was won by Linksys, a brand that is at the forefront of innovations that reimagine the way we think of networking devices for home and SMB segments.
The winner in the ‘Innovative Laptop Brand of the Year’ category was Dell, a manufacturer that has unveiled innovations across the spectrum in the category and continued to be a powerhouse in the segment. Sony, a brand that offers outstanding design and functionalities in several of its models was the winner of the ‘Innovative Smartphone Brand of the year’.
Belkin, a brand that offers an extensive portfolio of accessories and is known for its exquisite designs was the winner of the ‘Innovative Accessories Brand of the Year’.
EPOS, a regional manufacturer of PoS Systems, Touch Screens, Receipt Printers, Barcode Scanners, Banking Equipments, etc emerged on top of contenders for the category Innovative POS Solutions Brand of the Year.
Asus, a brand that has had a successful sub-brand focused on gaming for over 10 years won the Gaming Laptop Brand of the Year’ category.
Samsung, a brand that is playing a pioneering role in taking AR & VR technologies solutions to market was the winner of ‘AR & VR Innovation Brand of the Year’.
The winner of the ‘Home & SOHO Networking Brand of the Year’ was TP-Link, a that has been building and consolidating its presence in the local market for the past few years and now has a sizeable reach in channel. D-Link, with an extensive portfolio for the SMB segment and a strong channel, the winner of the ‘SMB Networking Brand of the Year’ category.
The ‘Consumer NAS Brand of the Year’ category saw WD, one of the powerhouses of the storage market and has an extensive NAS range for consumers emerge the winner. On the other hand, the winner of the category ‘Business NAS Brand of the Year’ was QNAP, a company that has a vast range of NAS solutions upto enterprise scale.
Kaspersky Lab, a Brand that has built up considerable market presence globally and in the region and has consolidated over the past several years, won the category ‘PC Security Software Brand of the Year’
The global consumer endpoint security market to grow at a CAGR of 11.81% during the period 2016-2020. One of the major trends observed in the market is the increasing demand for integrated endpoint security suites.
ESET, a brand that has been one of the strong contenders in the segment and has a considerable local presence in retail was the ‘Mobile Security Software Brand of the Year.’
E-City, a company that has done a rebranding initiative, is focusing on innovation in terms of layouts and has also added digital pricing won the ‘Innovative ICT Retailer of the Year’
In the first of the awards presented to distributors at the event, Asbis was awarded ‘Mobility Distributor of the Year’ for its Mobility and retail focus. Trigon, a distributor that has a strong networking portfolio was the ‘Networking Distributor of the Year’ winner while FDC International came ahead of other contenders and won the ‘Components Distributor of the Year’ category.
With largest number of votes in its favour, AB Vision Electronics was winner of the ‘AV Distributor of the Year’
The winner in the ‘Retail Distributor of the Year’ category was National Store, one of the leading distributors of the region that has been associated with some strong brands and has been instrumental in contributing to their market success. Touchmate, a brand that offers a vast range of ICT products from tablets and laptops to peripherals and accessories, was yet again the winner of the category ‘Regional Brand of the Year’.
New Trend Computers LLC, a company that is reputed for its focus on selling networking products and is associated with leading networking brands emerged the winner in the category ‘Networking Reseller of the Year.’
COMPUTRONIC TRADING LLC was the winner of the ‘Mobility Reseller of the Year’ while the ‘Champion Reseller of the Year’ winner was Al Ershad Group. Linksys, a brand that continues to expands vision for the industry and has strengthened its presence in the region’s reseller channel and retail market won the ‘Brand of the Year’ category’.
Among Editor’s choice categories of the year, the ‘Innovative Product of the Year’ went to Toshiba for its innovations including the ‘CANVIO for Smartphone’. The winner of the Emerging Accessories Brand of the Year was Zoook, a brand that has an inspiring range of mobile accessories positioned towards various user segments. The last award of the day was won by PNY in the category ‘Fast Growing Brand of the Year’.