Microsoft taps into upcountry market

[Nick]

Aiming to boost its consumer segment revenue, Microsoft is adding value to its products and business partners, and tapping into the growing upcountry market with a 40 million baht investment to build retail experience outlets.


The Microsoft Experience Centre located on the second floor of Siam TV in Chiang Mai.

Targeting revenue of 20-30 percent in the consumer segment, Thailand has one of the highest adoption rates of Windows 7, while the new Office 2010 is offered at a price lower than the global average, said Patama Chantaruck, Managing Director, Microsoft Thailand.

In the coming months, Microsoft Thailand will fly in a Thai-font design expert to explain and share how to design more Thai scripts to local font designers to display the Thai alphabet in 64 bit operating systems.

"Apart from user training and free virus protection which is built into the product, this is a valued added service for consumers who decide to choose genuine MS software," Patama said.

Moreover, the company is investing 40 million baht to open 10 retail shops, including Microsoft Experience Centres in business partners' spaces, as well as the Microsoft Experience Gallery in the standalone area as a storefront to encourage consumers to buy genuine software rather than pirated copies.

Recently, Microsoft opened its first upcountry Microsoft Experience Centre in Siam TV in Chiang Mai province. Microsoft's big IT retail partner offers all IT products with Microsoft software without any other operating system or non-operating system devices.

The company plans to open a further four shops upcountry which will contribute 20 percent of overall revenue, with the remainder coming from Bangkok.

In addition, statistics indicate that showcase centres encourage consumers to buy bona fide products. For example, the Microsoft Experience Gallery in Bangkok, which opened in March this year, has already attracted an impressive 6,300 visitors and 78 percent of them have purchased genuine products.

Dr Pitak Pluempitakul, Managing Director, Chiang Mai Siam TV, one of largest IT vendors in Chiang Mai and the northern provinces, said the company sees this as an opportunity to boost software sales in its shops.

Currently, the company's revenue from both audiovisual and IT products is around 1.2 billion baht, accounting for 60 percent of its 2 billion baht revenue. From this amount 58 percent are IT products and the rest are audiovisual items and the company projects that the IT segment will climb to 70 percent over the next couple of years.

"We saw that the company has a lion's share in consumer electronics devices so we decided to expand the range of IT products, which has enabled the company to be a retailer that has mixed brands, mixed products and mixed margins to sustain the business. We see its consumer electronic business complements the IT market in this age of convergence, specially in big screen home entertainment," Pitak said.

About the author


Writer: Suchit Leesa-nguansuk
Position: Reporter


ที่มา: bangkokpost.com