Friday 27 July 2012

The Notebook Company launches tabletZ.co.za Online Retail Site to grow tablet sales




   


Notebook and accessories retailer, The Notebook Company – which manages Laptop.co.za and Notebook.co.za online retail sites – is to launch tabletZ.co.za site as part of a plan to capture more of the tablet market.

Christopher Riley, CEO of The Notebook Company, said tablet sales now account for the lion’s share of the company’s revenue, with Apple’s popular iPads leading the revenue stakes by “a long way”.

“The Notebook Company took ownership of the Notebook.co.za online site in 1997 when thin laptops were referred to as notebooks, similar to now when thin Laptops are called ultrabooks.  We then took ownership of the Laptop.co.za site during 2008 and started managing it in parallel with Notebook.co.za.

“For the past year we have been looking for the right online name to take our tablet business further – with some cyber squatters wanting up to R250 000 for some appropriately named domains. We thought long and hard before coming up with the name tabletZ.co.za – and it is now our new online name for tablets. Who knows, maybe we might release some tabletZ branded tablets in the future. ” Riley quipped.

Wednesday 18 July 2012

WARRANTY REPAIR CENTRES ARE NOT AS GOOD AS THEY SAY THEY ARE – THE NOTEBOOK COMPANY




Repair centres – many of which handle warranty repairs for brand name products – are often “too slow, and not as good as they purport to be”, said Christopher Riley, CEO of notebook and accessories retailer, The Notebook Company, which manages the Laptop.co.za , Notebook.co.za and recently also tabletZ.co.za online retail sites.

The Notebook Company has recently come under fire from some corners for steadfastly importing the iPad tablets, while not being an authorized distributor for Apple. Despite this, The Notebook Company was the first company to introduce the very first iPad into SA – and was also the first to import the much-vaunted New iPad better known as the  iPad 3 .  While other vendors – including the local Apple distributor – were unable to get their hands on product, The Notebook Company continued to lead the pack, finding a way to provide its clients with the popular iPads.
“We have always made it quite clear to our clients that we are not official Apple distributors. However, we have offered them our own warranty and, at the end of the day, if we are unable to repair a unit, we simply do a swap-out with a similar priced and featured model –  this has happened a few times - Apples also go faulty - much less than other brands in my experience,” said Riley.
Riley said while The Notebook Company is not an official Apple distributor, he believes his current service levels are “arguably on par with the Local Apple warranty, or even better, and definitely better than most other major brand's third party repair centres”.
These might be brave words, but so far The Notebook Company has been able to put its money where its mouth is.