VIP aims to Transcend games market

Components distributor VIP Computers has added Asus monitors and a new range of memory products from Transcend to its portfolio.

Although it has been an official Asus distributor since 2004, VIP did not have Asus’ range of monitors. Now it has added to the Asus products it distributes, including notebooks and accessories, PC cases and barebones systems, digital cameras, motherboards, graphics cards, networking products, satellite navigation systems and optical storage.

Phil Brown, VIP’s product manager, said the vendor had recently done a fantastic job of promoting its monitor range of products and that any brand-recognition problems had been rectified.

“The market for Asus’ products may not have been so strong during the early years, but it has improved in leaps and bounds recently. Now we can offer specialist advice and expertise on advanced and innovative products, such as the PG221. It has a superb panel, a built-in rotational webcam and a 15W woofer.”

Jasper Hsu, Asus’ market development manager, said built-in webcams and microphone arrays were less important than reliability. “The most important thing to us is the trustworthy quality that the Asus product lines provide.”

Meanwhile, VIP has moved quickly to adapt to changing market conditions for DRam and flash memory, signing a distribution deal with Taiwanese vendor Transcend.

“Transcend has a good reputation, is one of Taiwan’s biggest manufacturers and offers exceptional quality at surprisingly good prices,” explained Brown. “Better still, it is not overly distributed so our customers have an opportunity to make margin. In the current climate, that is increasingly difficult.”

With PC capacities getting ever larger and with the huge influence of the gaming market, consumers are crying out for dual-channel kits in particular, said Brown. “The gamer wants a guarantee of the best performance possible.”
Brown reported that VIP’s current best seller is a Transcend JetRam 4GB DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit.