Mobile Computers Category Profile

Technical innovations in notebook-PC management and security, coupled with revamped partner programs, propelled both Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba to the top of the heap in the Mobile Computers category of the 2006 VARBusiness Annual Report Card (ARC) survey, tying with a 73.

While HP, Toshiba and third-place finisher Gateway scored higher in nearly every area this year than they did in 2005, Lenovo fell from grace with partners, dropping from No. 1 to last place. The decline owes largely to lower scores in Partnership and Support. In Partnership, Lenovo scored a 59 to HP's 65 and Toshiba's 68. In Support, the laggard earned a score of 60, 8 points less than HP and Toshiba, which tied at 68.

Partners say that Lenovo has failed to demonstrate its commitment to the channel, and many question whether the PC-maker is more focused on moving to a direct-sales model and building its business in Asia and other emerging markets outside of the United States.

But while Lenovo stumbled, HP and Toshiba made major strides with partners in the past year.

"I think both HP and Toshiba have really stepped it up from the innovation perspective in helping make sure their products really fit in the corporate world," says Bob Venero, CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, a Holbrook, N.Y.-based VAR that IBM recognized as its top U.S. business partner in the personal-systems market in 2005. "In the past, the [IBM/Lenovo] ThinkPad has been the [notebook] staple."

In fact, Future Tech has dropped "ThinkVantage" from the name of its $2 million Technologies Solution Center, which the solution provider launched with IBM to much fanfare in 2004, and added two vendors' technologies to the lineup there: HP and Toshiba. "They've invested a lot in security tools and technologies, and in data recovery," Venero says. "And those are some of the things that corporate America and VARs are looking for."

In technical innovation, HP received a score of 76. Toshiba scored 74, Gateway scored 70, and Lenovo earned a 68.

The two top vendors have also made efforts to revitalize their partner programs. "For the first time in five years, they're a much more integrated part of our organization, Venero says. "That comes from them engaging better with the channel."

In the wake of an unsuccessful attempt to adopt a direct-sales model, Toshiba, for example, has invested $20 million to revamp its channel program.

"We [met with] hundreds of VARs to tell them we won't compete with them, and we backed up that message with a competitive channel program," says Jerry Lumpkin, vice president of business channel sales at Toshiba America Information Systems' digital products division. "There was no phase of the channel program that went untouched."

Toshiba launched the new program full-bore in April, and channel sales grew about 35 percent in the first three months, according to Lumpkin.

For its part, HP rolled out a New Business Opportunity rebate program for partners this past summer. Under that initiative, solution providers can earn rebates of 4 percent to 8 percent on PC-based solution sales with deal registration.

In addition, Gateway gained favor with VARs in the past year by improving its ProNet channel program.

"I can tell there was a push from the partner group this year; they have made the extra effort to understand our business," says Chuck Greeley, president of Office World, a solution provider based in Lima, Ohio.