Transcend guns for market share

Memory vendor throws down the gauntlet to rival Kingston after signing Hammer distribution deal

Ward: co-branding options will provide improved margin opportunities for resellers

Memory vendor Transcend has added Hammer to its distributor lineup in a tactical move to steal European market share from arch rival Kingston Technology.

The vendor has forged relationships with Kingston’s main distributors since it made its European debut in 2005, netting Avnet, Westcoast, Simms and now Hammer.
Hammer will offer Transcend’s range of USB flash drives, flash cards, card readers, card adaptors, and external hard drives.

According to market watcher Gartner, Transcend had the third largest market share for flash products and the second largest market share for pen drives worldwide last year.

Chanaka Tillakaratne, sales manager at Transcend UK, said: “We aim to have the largest market share in Europe. Competing with Kingston, Transcend is strong in the East and US-based Kingston is strong in the West.

“We have now partnered with all of Kingston’s major distributors, with Hammer filling a gap where some of Transcend’s products were not being pushed.”

Hammer has strengthened its consumer vendor line up since forming a consumer storage team in April 2008. It originally launched with Kingston flash products, later adding hard disk drive vendor Neso in March.

On partnering with Transcend James Ward, managing director of Hammer, said: “Unique offerings such as biometric fingerprint recognition USBs and a co-branding option will provide improved margin opportunities for resellers.”

“Transcend’s position as the only top-tier manufacturer committed to continuous supply of lower capacity points will ensure resellers can maintain revenue streams on existing contracts.”

Kingston was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.