D&H, Adobe Team In Digital Camera/Video Channel Program

The new initiative, dubbed the Platinum program, D&H will serve as the exclusive distributor of Adobe products to the "photography channel," according to the Harrisburg, Pa.-based distributor. The program applies to Adobe's digital video and digital imaging resellers as well as to specialty retailers whose sales in those categories total at least 30 percent of their overall revenue, according to D&H. Adobe software distributed through the program includes Acrobat, the full Photoshop product line, and video editing solutions such as Premiere Pro and Encore DVD.

D&H said that so far it has enrolled roughly 400 Platinum retailers and resellers. A key objective of the program is to help channel partners sell software--a higher-margin product--as add-ons to hardware sales, driving more solution-focused business, according to Rob Eby, director of purchasing at D&H.

"We want to give our resellers and retailers an enhanced margin opportunity," Eby said in a statement. "Hardware will always be a core area, but margins have become something of a diminishing return, so it's more of a challenge than ever for our customers to reap benefits. We want to steer them back into a profitable arena with incremental revenues and to give them more comprehensive solutions in the process."

Add-on products stand to be a key sales driver in the burgeoning digital convergence market. For example, Kevin Eagan, general manager of Microsoft's eHome Division, said at the New York launch of Windows XP Media Center 2003 late last month that solution providers can add value and margin to Media Center PC sales by offering them as part of "bundled" solutions, which could include add-ons such as photo printers, wireless networking devices, multimedia software, audio/video components and content services.

D&H already has been zeroing in on VARs serving the home networking, entertainment and automation segments. In late July, the distributor held its second D&H Convergence Show, which drew more than 300 solution providers and 41 vendors, up from 160 channel partners and 27 vendors last year. And earlier this month, D&H held its first West Coast Expo in City of Industry, Calif., which attracted about 500 resellers and 55 vendors, including Intel, Samsung, Creative Labs, NEC/Mitsubishi, Linksys and D-Link. Products drawing significant VAR interest at the expo included the CTX M730V LCD display with built-in camera, ATI Radeon 9800XT graphics processor and Linksys Wireless-B Media Adapter, the distributor reported.

D&H said it also has sharpened its focus on the digital video category, recently adding video-editing vendor Avid Technology to a lineup that included Dazzle and Canopus. Other D&H digital video vendors include digital camera makers like Kodak, Nikon, Fuji, Toshiba and Sony plus camcorder vendors such as Panasonic, Canon, JVC and Samsung.