Q&A: ViewSonic General Manager Sees PCs As A Natural Fit

Three months ago, ViewSonic took many channel watchers by surprise when it announced the launch of its first PC product line, which consists of the VPC100 ViePC, all-in-one PC, VieBook netbook and Net Top. We recently sat down with Jeff Volpe, vice president and general manager of ViewSonic North America, to see where the company is going.

Isn't it a big departure for ViewSonic to get into the PC market?

We have a long history -- 20 years -- in the display channel business and we already make compatible monitors. The same customers that buy our monitors buy PCs, so we thought that this is the right time to launch our PC line and we can provide a consistency to our products.

What kind of feedback are you getting from your partners?

We don't want anyone to consider the new PC line a division from our portfolio of products; this is an adjunct. Our VARs are able to add or adopt services and products, depending on a customer's need, so this is a natural extension for them.

You've spoken about ViewSonic's Smarter Greener Computing marketing campaign in connection with the new PCs. What's the connection?

Well, take our all-in-one PC. By putting everything together in one package, there's 45 percent less plastic use, but that doesn't put money in VARS' pockets. But when you add social consciousness and energy savings, that might prompt a customer to make PC changes sooner than later especially when you talk about reducing expenses for the end user. So, that generates device sales, and configuration and maintenance services for the channel.

What's going on with ViewSonic's digital signage business and the channel?

Digital signage is a very different market from what's found in the standard VAR community; it's not a traditional VAR proposition. But there's an evolution of more VARs getting into this area. There's more and more schools, stores and other areas of opportunities -- digital signage is not just for public transportation.

What other products is ViewSonic launching?

We just came out with our NMP-550 and NMP-200 RISC-based media players, which we see as a cost-effective alternative to PC-based media players and can handle high-quality graphics, text and video. They're also compatible with Release 5 of Scala's Content Manager software for digital signage.

What's your message to channel partners toughing it out in this economy?

I think we're all struggling to see what the future holds. By adding new products to our core portfolio, we're able to bring VARs the opportunity to reposition themselves in this market. We're trying to build real opportunities here.