Hitachi GST bites into Apple channel

Hitachi reveals plans to recruit Apple partners for European expansion in the new year

Pereira: Apple resellers can get access to a strong brand

Storage vendor Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) will target Apple resellers early next year in order to assist with the European expansion of its G-Tech range of external hard drives.

Hitachi GST acquired G-Tech through its purchase of storage manufacturer Fabrik seven months ago, and is now intent on building the brand’s European market share.

G-Tech products are predominantly aimed at Mac users, a community that Hitachi GST feels Apple resellers are best placed to help it target.

Steve Pereira, EMEA vice president at Hitachi GST, explained: “The benefits for Apple resellers are that they get access to a strong brand that has really been embraced by the creative community in the US, particularly in the Mac community.

“In addition, you can expect to see the launch of a G-tech reseller programme early in 2010, which will support and drive success for the reseller community.”

James Collard, sales director at Apple reseller Stormfront, said: “The G-Tech line is certainly something I could see interesting the rest of the Apple reseller community.

They would have to be priced correctly, but the products are certainly aesthetically in keeping with the rest of the Mac product line.”

Storage distributor Hammer signed a distribution deal with Hitachi GST in September ­- a partnership that Nick Powling, disk business development manager at the distributor, said was already paying off.

“Hitachi’s products have bolstered our enterprise disk drive offering and also provided more options for those customers upgrading their enterprise storage environments,” he said.