Notebooks - Sony Woos All

This year, we have a surprise winner in the notebook category, ie, Sony, which has left major other brands far behind in the race to the top. In fact, this year the channel partners have given a totally different verdict in comparison to last year. While Dell has moved down to grab the second spot, Lenovo has slipped to the third position. And, to everyone's surprise, last year's winner, HP, has plunged to the fourth position, whereas the fifth slot has been filled up by Samsung. Sony rules the roost among the channel partners as far as the overall product quality, aftersales support, and commercial terms are concerned. The company's notebooks are not only user-friendly but also conform to specifications. Besides focusing on advertising, it also has an excellent ability to provide satisfactory repair and replacement services to its partners. Furthermore, Sony maintains flexibility
and transparency in its commercial terms and policies, promptness in communicating its schemes/incentive programs to the channel partners, and even appreciation by offering back-end incentives and settlements.

Sony is way ahead of its competitors in offering online support too, wherein the richness of online resources offered, turnaround time/promptness, and keeping an interactive site for resolving queries are well endorsed by the channel community. And besides having dedicated personnel for maintaining relationship with its partners, the effectiveness with which Sony manages disruption due to change in personnel, is quite commendable. Dell has been able to gain mindshare this year by offering diversity of product range to the market. It has also maintained flexibility in conducting localized promotions for its partners. Moreover, the channel partners also appreciate the presence of the company's online partner portal and its effectiveness.

As far as Lenovo is concerned, it has secured the maximum points in overall product reliability and
price versus performance ratio. It has also scored over its competitors in innovativeness of market development programs. Though the company needs to buck up promptness in stock replacement, partners do value the presence of its service centers in all the major localities/cities/regions. Like Sony, Lenovo too maintains transparency in its commercial terms and policies. Meanwhile, a lot of work needs to be done by HP, especially in the area of providing an overall marketing support to its partners. The company certainly lacks in the profit margins and back-end incentives and its settlement given to the partners, richness of online resources offered, and having an interactive site for resolving queries, and consistency in honoring commitments made to its partners.