Western Digital set to lift end-user demand
Manufacturer reveals plans to promote diversified image at its partner summit in Iceland
Western Digital has pledged to invest more of its budget into end-user demand generation to reflect the increasingly consumer-driven character of the hard-drive market.
Speaking to CRN at the manufacturer’s partner summit in Iceland, chief executive John Coyne admitted that Western Digital is still regarded as a desktop-only player, despite now generating 47 per cent of its revenues from non-desktop sources.
In its last quarter, the firm drew 19 per cent of its turnover from branded external storage products, up from six per cent 15 months ago.
Coyne said: “It has not yet sunk in that we are a diversified firm. So we’re putting most of our marketing support into newer products and applications.”
He added that the vendor would support this by expanding its WD Select programme, which provides direct marketing support to second-tier retail and system builder partners.
“Not only do we want to support our primary distributors, we also want to create pull for them in the next level of the chain,” he explained.
Ed Bateman, business unit manager at distributor Bell Micro, said: “By 2009/2010, IDC predicts half the hard-drive market will be consumer driven. Western Digital is well positioned in the OEM space, but now it has to ensure end-users understand who it is.”
Coyne also said Western Digital would continue to deploy more feet on the street across EMEA, where the firm has added 10 staff over the past 12 months.
“We’ve significantly strengthened the European sales organisation, not only at the front edge, but in terms of breadth of disciplines within the sales organisation,” he said.