WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
Taiwan: HP and Lenovo to build up own brand stores.
Seeing Apple achieving success by promoting its products with its Apple Stores, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Lenovo are both aggressively aiming to build up their own brand stores in Taiwan, according to sources from the retail channel.
Lenovo currently has about five own-brand stores in Taiwan, mainly in the two major metropolitan cities Taipei and Kaohsiung and the company is reportedly considering to greatly increase the number of its brand stores in Asia region to 1,000. Meanwhile, HP is also establishing a full-service center in Taipei, combining product maintenance service with product exhibition in one location and the center is the HP's eighth full-service center in the Asia Pacific region.
The sources also pointed out that unlike the traditional IT mall, a brand store can greatly enhance the brand image through decoration and allow the sales to have better communication opportunity with consumers.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple's revenues from the Apple Store grew 42.6% on year to US$17.08 million, accounting for 13.2% of the company's total revenues.
