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If you took a snapshot of the multimedia market, you'd think that VARs shouldn't have to concern themselves with adding it to their customers' systems. Multimedia in today's new COMPUTERs has changed from add-on status, which VARs
can capitalize on, to built-in status, which doesn't make VARs much money at all. Look a little deeper, though, and you'll easily find a huge opportunity for add-on sales.
Although it seems like multimedia kits are aimed at the home market, there are a couple of reasons why upgrades are a good bet for corporate VARs. First, VARs already have access to a broad base of customers who, most likely, could put multimedia to good use. Also, those customers don't purchase new systems as often as home users, making it likely that they haven't bought PCs with multimedia already built in. So instead of trying to push corporate budget-makers into springing for the latest PC that's got everything already included, VARs can bring their clients up to speed with a less expensive, and more profitable, alternative.
The VAR Who Hesitates...
But you'd better get on the ball, according to the latest predictions. Multimedia kit manufacturers have enjoyed great success over the past few years. According to Dataquest Inc., a market research company in San Jose, upgrade kit vendors sold almost 1.5 million units worldwide in 1993. That year, though, began the reversal of fortune for upgrade kits; their numbers declined while shipments of PCs with built-in multimedia skyrocketed.
In 1992, for example, 928,000 upgrade kits were shipped, compared with only 128,000 PCs with multimedia systems aboard. Estimated shipments for 1997 indicate a...