Distributors cut out of IBM retail attack

Retail Big Blue goes direct to outlets with revamped Thinkpads.

IBM will bypass its distributors by supplying retail outlets itself as the manufacturer looks to target the consumer market with a revamped range of Thinkpads.

According to sources, the first in the iSeries consumer range of Thinkpads will launch into the retail channel on 3 November, bypassing distributors to land on the shelves at Dixons, PC World and a number of mail-order suppliers.

The UK price is expected to be between #900 and #1,000.

Bill Holtshouser, worldwide consumer mobile manager at IBM, was brought over from the Aptiva division to add consumer expertise to the ThinkPad range. 'There will be no more than a few models of the iSeries and it would be nice to have an eventual price point of about #800. In retail, the price point is king,' he said.

Holtshouser confirmed that mail-order companies had been approached and that there were no immediate plans for direct selling over the Net, although the option for doing so was not discounted.

Anders Aarsoe, mobile product sales manager at IBM, added: 'The iSeries is not for the corporate customer and there is no conflict between the two channels. They are both geared towards different parts of the market.'

But he conceded that there were 'a few rare occasions when there could be a conflict'.

Andy Gass, deputy managing director of Computer 2000, said: 'I don't think it will become the cornerstone of Big Blue's channel policy. Vendors are looking for alternative channels to market because of Dell's success.'

Jeremy Davies, analyst at Context, added: 'As a retail and consumer product, it will be difficult to compete with the desktop deals at Tesco. It could be difficult to attract customers to a product that's double the price of a higher specified desktop. But if it could get the price down to #800, that would be interesting.'

IBM will also refresh its corporate ThinkPad range, including the launch of the ThinkPad 390.