ViewSonic Makes Splash In Wireless Market
Solution providers said channel kingpin ViewSonic's no-holds-barred wireless product launch last week will hit competitors such as Cisco Systems' Linksys division, D-Link and Netgear hard. What's more, View- Sonic, Walnut, Calif., has snatched away D-Link channel chief Greg Avera to lead its new wireless effort.
"This is going to shake up the market," said Tarun Sachdeva, a corporate sales manager for Microgear, a San Francisco solution provider that sells products from all the top wireless network players. "The streaming video quality of these products is outstanding. I think ViewSonic is going to end up being the leader in this market because they are so strong in the channel."
Avera, who as general manager of ViewSonic's Wireless Network Technologies group will report directly to ViewSonic Americas President Christopher Franey, said the company is moving into this segment very aggressively. The vendor's multimillion-dollar effort will leverage ViewSonic's longstanding relationships with its 8,000-plus channel partners, and the products will be available through both View-Sonic resellers and retailers such as Fry's Electronics and Amazon.com.
ViewSonic in total unveiled nine new wireless products including what it calls the core of its lineup: the 80-Gbyte WMG80 and 120-Gbyte WMG120 Wireless Media Gateways and the WMA100 Wireless Media Adapter.
The products are primarily aimed at the wireless home networking market. But ViewSonic VARs said the offerings, which will be available in the fourth quarter, will have a big impact in the business market because of their breakthrough digital content-management capabilities and video-streaming performance.
"I think ViewSonic has taken audiovisual media distribution to a new level in terms of efficiency and ease and quality of distribution," said Oli Thordarson, CEO of Alvaka Networks, a Huntington Beach, Calif., solution provider.
Executives from Linksys, D-Link and Netgear point out that they have faced much-ballyhooed newcomers in the past, most notably Microsoft, which entered the market to significant fanfare several years ago and then dropped out in May. Netgear, for its part, said it does not consider ViewSonic a direct competitor. However, Netgear does plan to release a wireless media adapter card with a video processor on board later this year.
D-Link, Fountain Valley, Calif., meanwhile, said it is in the process of readying a relaunch of its channel program. In addition, the vendor this week unveiled a new hot-spot gateway solution.