Tiny.com stakes big claim on PC market
E-tailer hopes to lure customers from larger competitors with low prices
Bullish e-tailer Tiny.com is throwing down the gauntlet to rivals Dell and Evesham as it sets out to grab market share.
The firm is part of PC manufacturer Time Group, which acquired Tiny in 2002. It claims to have increased sales of PCs and laptops from 1,000 a week at its launch in February to 3,500 last month.
Tiny.com has also said it hopes to lure customers from system builders and rival e-tailers such as Dabs.com.
Brian Trevaskiss, marketing director at Tiny.com, said: "We are aiming to offer the lowest PC prices in the UK. We want to be the number-one supplier to consumers and the lower end of the SME market within 12 months."
Trevaskiss added the firm can also compete with channel vendors such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Acer because it uses the same branded components.
"The difference is we can pass price savings on to customers because we don't have heavy shipping costs," he said.
Dave Atherton, managing director of Dabs.com, said the two firms operate in different markets. "Customers may well go to Tiny.com to buy systems, but they would come to us for their peripherals because it doesn't sell them. It will have no impact on our business," he said.
Mike Welch, analyst at Canalys, said the smaller PC builders, rather than giants like Dell, would be more likely to feel the pressure from Tiny.com.
"It is a very price-competitive market and a vendor has to offer something very special. I don't think Tiny.com will make the same splash that Tiny made when it launched in the market. Things have moved on too much for that," he said.
Both Evesham and Dell declined to comment.