Punk band Not By Choice, Vancouver group Stabilo and soul singer Ivana Santilli are rocking to the beat of BenQ Canada Corp. These artists took part in the company’s ongoing concert series at the Revival nightclub in Toronto.
Since becoming BenQ Canada Corp. on Oct. 1, 2003, the Canadian subsidiary
has nabbed No. 1 market share in LCD monitors, beating out Samsung, and projectors in the third quarter of 2004, said Jimmy Davlouros, vice-president and general manager of BenQ Canada.
Based on these numbers, Davlouros is confident BenQ Canada will continue to do the same next year. “”There’s no doubt we will be market leader for panel displays in 2005,”” said Davlouros, who, prior to his current post, served as executive vice-president at Samsung Canada.
BenQ Canada also entered the optical drive space in the second quarter of this year. It garnered nine per cent market share in the CD-RW product segment in Q3 2004 behind LG and Lite-On, according to Evans Research Corp.
In a controversial move last month he announced the company had dropped Synnex Canada in favour of Comtronic Computer Inc. to distribute its DVD component products.
Since the announcement, Davlouros said he’s received a couple of phone calls from Synnex, but hasn’t changed his mind.
However, he did say distributors should allocate more of their resources towards VARs as opposed to distribution. “”(Distributors) don’t have the ability to hand-carry and hand-deliver my product,”” he said.
On the notebook front, Davlouros said the market won’t see the release of the Joybook in Canada yet.
“”I need to make sure we have the product, service, logistics, channel partners, and marketing. Until then, you’re not going to see BenQ notebooks in Canada.””
He hopes, though it will be in 2005.