PC Products To Have Major Show Presence
By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 12/20/1999
The computer accessory category continues to grow, as lower priced and even free PCs flood the market, boosting computer household penetration above the 50 percent mark.
Many of these households, about 20 million, own more than one computer. All of this creates quite a market for computer accessories.
Several suppliers will be featuring new computer accessories at CES, including Belkin, Computer Expressions, Fellowes, Tripp Lite, Woods, Zenith, and many others.
Look for new imaginative designs and colors, as the desktop becomes more than just a utilitarian workspace and suppliers offer new styling in mousepads, keyboards and mice to differentiate themselves.
Fellowes, for example, is planning to debut a new CD storage line for the 14- to 30-year-old market. Called EXO, the products feature "cool" new styling, according to Mark Naidoff, VP/general manager of computer accessories.
The company, which offers a total of about 3,000 products, is putting a big emphasis on computer accessories and has realigned its business to combine CE and computer accessories into one category under the computer umbrella.
Fellowes is featuring a wide variety of computer accessories at the show, including its new headset line that will be sold under the Jabra by Fellowes name. It will include earsets designed for both cellular and cordless phones, as well as for PCs and Macintosh computers.
Computer Expressions continues to add licenses for its line of mousepads and CD storage products. The latest is Pokemon, who appears on five new mousepads being offered at a suggested retail price of about $12.
With the fashion market in mind, Computer Expressions is offering mousepads and CD wallets made of hemp.
At Belkin Components the em-phasis will be on new packaging for the company's line, along with new mice, keyboards, a media storage line, and the next-generation UPS line.
Woods is updating its IBM line of computer accessories at CES and is featuring items such as a new Network Surge Protector, a device that offers protection for the AC line, phone/modem line and JH-14 telecommunications jacks with 330 volts and 2,220 joules. The suggested retail price is $59.99. Woods is also introducing IEEE 1394 cables at the show.
Tripp Lite, which has licensed the IBM brand name for surge protectors, is offering eight SKUs in the 280 to 700 VA range to home and small office users. Suggested retail prices start at $107 and go up to $599.
The company is also announcing new cables and connectivity products, with options in USB, FireWire, PC, Mac, Cat-5e, fiber optics, network cables, SCSI and switches.
One category offering a number of new products is keyboards. In addition to Belkin's new line, there will be a variety of other innovative products at CES.
Datadesk Technologies, for example, is showing a keyboard designed specifically for children's smaller hands. Called Little Fingers, it is mouse and PC compatible and comes with Mario Teaches Typing 2 to help children learn to type. The suggested retail price is $99.95.
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