Maverick looking to the visualiser space
Distributor appoints industry veteran to target education, corporate and medical markets
Maverick is looking to push further into the visualiser market with the help of industry veteran Ian Myhill, who has more than 19 years’ experience in the space.
A visualiser – or document camera – is an electronic imaging tool for displaying 3D objects, printed materials and live subjects via a projector onto a screen, interactive whiteboard (IWB), plasma or LCD monitor.
Myhill, who is tasked with giving Maverick a greater focus on visualisers, told CRN: “Maverick offered visualisers previously, but it didn’t dedicate a lot of resources to them. It had a relationship with visualiser vendor AVerMedia, which came to an end last year. I have been on board since October as a business manager and we now have distribution agreements with three new visualiser vendors: Ken-A-Vision, Qomo and JVC.”
Maverick’s strategy is to promote visualisers as an interactive technology.
“Education will be a target market for our resellers, but corporate and medical are two other verticals that visualisers are ideal for,” Myhill added.
Stuart Mizon, business manager at rival distributor Midwich, said: “We have sold visualisers since the summer and carry products from Samsung and Lumens. Demand is increasing because prices have come down, awareness of the products has grown and Becta [British Educational Communications and Technology Agency] is rumoured to be including them in a periphery framework later in the year.”
Rachel Turner, marketing manager at VAR Interactive Education, said: “The Genee Vision 6100 visualiser from Genee World is our best-selling product – it has taken over sales of IWBs. Schools are increasingly using Genee Vision with Genee Slate, a mobile presenter, instead of with an IWB.”
However, Jack McGuigan, director of VAR Independent Products, told CRN his firm only sells on average one or two visualisers per month.
“Our biggest brands are Elmo and AVerMedia,” he said. “Every year we are told that visualisers will be the next big thing in education, but it just has not happened yet.”