Logitech, the Swiss company known for its peripheral products for PCs that include mice, keyboards, game controllers and webcams, opened last week its first brand store in the country amid positive sales performance for accessories that defy recession.
Market watchers have noted that sales of PC peripherals tend to go up in a down economy and the products fly off dealers’ shelves faster during penny-pinching days as customers take to these small items for a quick and affordable way to update their tech assets while they postpone and save up for the more costly major upgrades.
Against this backdrop, Logitech opened its first store at the Cyberzone, the technology section at SM Megamall, with the intention of letting local consumers see and actually try their latest offerings and give them a better idea of the quality of Logitech products.
In a video call to members of the local press in Manila, Moninder Jain, Logitech director for Asia-Pacific and South Asia business markets, said having a Logitech brand store in the Philippines will allow customers to touch, feel and try the products and get guided help in choosing the peripherals they need.
Because accessories have become integral parts to complete a PC set-up, Logitech seizes the opportunity to extend its product portfolio that now also includes computer speakers, headphones, wireless audio devices, and attachments for digital music players and mobile phones.
To mark its store opening, Logitech also unveiled several new products such as a Comfort Lapdesk, Cooling Pad and Notebook Riser, a new-fangled wireless mouse and stereo speakers, and new Logitech keyboards. The peripheral maker also introduced its first Logitech Vid Software for streamed video calling.
The Logitech Comfort Lapdesk takes the place of a pillow or a book that people often use to balance their notebooks on their laps as they work.
Made of air-mesh fabric, the Comfort Lapdesk features a four-layer, heat-shielding design and has an air-flow chamber between its top and base to minimize the heat that users feel emanating from their notebooks.
The Logitech Cooling Pad N100 and Logitech Notebook Riser N110 both improve user comfort by improving airflow around the notebook and providing ergonomic improvements by elevating the notebook display to an optimal viewing position and also allowing the hands to rest better on the notebook as the user types.
Logitech added to its popular brand of computer mice a new wireless model, the Logitech V550 Nano, featuring a Click-and-Go-Dock and a tiny Plug-and-Forget Nano receiver.
This cordless laser mouse for notebooks has an unobtrusive dock that could be clipped to a laptop so users can freely carry both notebook and mouse together with ease.
Also, the V550 Nano receiver, when plugged into to a notebook, extends out only eight millimeters so it could be left on the slot even when the notebook is stowed.
For speakers, Logitech announced the new Z-5 Omnidirectional stereo speakers for PC and Mac computers. Using technology previously found only in expensive home-theater systems, the omnidirectional acoustics on the Logitect Z-5 speakers use forward- and backward-firing drivers to transmit sound evenly in all directions.
A brand strongly associated with keyboards, Logitech has released new keyboards, including the Logitech Illumi-nated Keyboard that makes typing easy even in the dark.
The company is also making available its first keyboard designed specifically for the notebook PC, the diNovo Edge, which offers a full-size layout with matching Logitech Alto notebook stands.
Finally, Logitech comple-mented its line of video cameras with its own free software that offers video calling. Called Vid, it sets up automatically with a Logitech webcam. It does away with third-party software and simply uses the e-mail details of a person’s contacts to connect them.
As PC peripherals increa-singly become objects of fashion, Logitech’s Jain believes the more they have to let their customers experience their products up close.
Jain said in the brand store, consumers will actually experience and test their products as they will not have dummy units on display.
He also said Logitech will open other brand stores in Southeast Asia following the one in Megamall.
Logitech currently has two key distributors in the country with their own sets of dealers that separately focus on the IT and appliance/consumer electronics segments.
The Logitech brand store, which is being managed by Villman Computer, is only a showroom and consumers who wish to buy the products on display will be referred to the sales channels.
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