Laptop cases open new market for PC builders

Security issues have driven a new market for laptop cases.

System builders have been advised to abandon all hope of making large margins on PCs, as competition, especially in the laptop market, becomes too intense. But they can still make large margins on add-ons and peripherals, argued some vendors and distributors.

Neil Gordon, Case Logic brand manager at Oxford-based distributor Path Group, told CRN that laptop bags are every bit as essential a component of the modern PC as memory or disk space. The only difference is that they can be designed in the UK and offer double-digit margins, he said.

“Without giving away the figures, resellers can make around 40 per cent margins on a laptop bag.

“Nobody carries around a naked laptop any more, so there is going to be a sale with every machine that goes out,” he explained.

The whole market has been given a shot in the arm by the boom in external hard drives, he said.

“Removable back-up devices need a home and external hard drives are proving incredibly popular,” he said.

“When I was a PC builder I would have bitten someone’s hand off if they had offered the sort of markups you can make on a bag. A stylish bag is a safe bet.”

Mobilis has also entered the physical protection market, with Mobilecases. This could offer the PC reseller a chance to differentiate themselves from bag sellers.

“A case is like a second skin for a laptop. It enables them to work on the move, but if they drop the system, they do not smash it,” said Henro Smit, UK sales director for Mobilis.

“A typical salesman’s laptop takes a battering, so we can offer them protection and extend the life of a machine,” he said. “We will take this as far as possible through resellers.”

Meanwhile, another type of laptop security has created a new market. Laptop users are increasingly likely to suffer from privacy violations when working in public, according to research by Hypertec.
Some 98 per cent of those questioned admitted they would read the private information of a laptop user sitting next to them.

Accordingly, 70 per cent of laptop users say they will not use their portable PCs in public.
The laptop privacy threat has created an opportunity for resellers to sell privacy solutions, Hypertec argued.