Panasonic TOUGHBOOK, world’s toughest and lightest laptop, now available in retail

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK, world’s toughest and lightest laptop, now available in retail

India’s first outlet opens in Chennai

New Delhi, August 28, 2006: Having successfully launched and sold its legendary TOUGHBOOK range of mobile computers to different verticals, Panasonic Systems Asia Pacific, today announced its country-wide retail program to make Toughbooks available to highly discerning individual customers as well. Panasonic, in association with Third Wave Exim—the distributors for Toughbooks in the country—debuts its retail program with India’s first outlet at Panasonic Shoppe, GN Chetty Road, Chennai. The Chennai showroom will house all models of Toughbook available in India—the rugged CF-18 and CF-29, the semi-rugged CF-73, and the ultra-portable CF-W2, CF-Y2 and CF-T2.

Third Wave, so far, has made coercive forays in North and West. The inauguration of first retail outlet in Chennai now marks its presence in South as well. The Company has ambitious plans to tap the market in East as well in the four to five months. The retail shops that Third Wave plans to partner with across the country will primarily be multi-brand outlets. It is in talks with select retailers and plans to sign up two outlets in New Delhi, another two in Mumbai and one each in Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad in the first phase. Gauging the success of this initiative, Third Wave intends to sign up 15 more retail outlets in the immediate future—including Category B cities and the upcountry markets. Though the outlets will be opened in association with its channel partners, they will essentially be managed by Third Wave.

According to Mr. Kelvin Yeo, Assistant Manager, IT Products, Panasonic Systems Asia Pacific, “Though the natural constituencies of the Panasonic Toughbook computers, especially the rugged field mobile range, are highly demanding verticals such as defense, law enforcement, mining, oil exploration etc, the business mobile range–semi-rugged and ultra-portable models—finds application in corporate environments too. The market for business mobile computers is best addressed through retail than institutional sales.”

“Ever since the launch of Panasonic’s legendary Toughbooks in the country, we had been concentrating on institutional sales, especially of the rugged models in the niche verticals including the government enterprises. Having successfully established operations in the domain, we are now focusing on individual customers and corporate clients as well—positioning the semi-rugged and ultra-portable models. The retail initiative is the first step in this direction. This will be well supported by advertising, engagement of premium retailers and channel partners across the country,” said Mr. Vijay Sheth, Chief Executive Officer, Third Wave Exim.

Third Wave Exim ropes in partners under two distinct categories—Toughbook Pre-mium Partners and Tough-book Authorized Partners. While Toughbook Premium Partners procure demo kits and are engaged directly by Third Wave Exim under its own partner network, the Toughbook Authorized Partners are appointed by the Toughbook Premium Partners constituting the tier two of the Company’s channel network. The current strength of Toughbook Premium Partner stren-gth is seven and the Company plans to increase this to fifteen by the end of this calendar year. However, it intends to grow slow on the Toughbook Authorized Partner front. It will increase the count of its Authorized Partners only marginally from existing 25 to 30 in the months to come.

According to Mr. Vijay Sheth, “Besides setting aside funds for the retail initiative and recruiting a product specialist at each location to do the brand and product promotion, the retailer or channel partner should understand the product well. This is one of the most significant parameters. It is important for our partner in the channel network—be it at any level or tier—to comprehend the product offering well enough such that he can share its vitality with the prospective customers. If the channel partner is catering to a particular vertical, in-depth knowledge of the domain is also highly desirable. Only then will he be able to understand and further explain the various applications that can be specially built for the vertical on the tablet PC.”

Third Wave Exim started distributing Panasonic Toughbooks about a year ago. Though Third Wave has been into distribution of Panasonic’s office automation products for long, Toughbooks alone contribute almost 50% to its overall revenues now. This fiscal, the Third Wave expects business worth Rs 60 crore from sale of Toughbooks. The semi-rugged and ultra-portable series of Toughbooks are available at a price ranging between Rs 1,60,000 to Rs 3,00,000, whereas the rugged range starts at Rs 2,00,000 and goes up to Rs 6,00,00 depending on the feature set required.

About Panasonic Toughbooks
Panasonic ToughBooks are made as per MIL-standards and have earned a major share of the market worldwide. In fact, Panasonic is one of the leading brands in the business laptop market in Japan. Bucking the trend of outsourcing, ToughBooks are the only laptop brand where all models are conceived, designed, manufactured and tested in-house. In fact, 84% of all the components that go into a Toughbook are manufactured by Matsushita itself.

ToughBooks Field Mobile PC are subjected to 26 sequential drops onto each face, edge and corner from a height of 3 ft on a two inch-thick plywood over a steel plate over concrete; one hour of vibration per axis simulating 1000 miles of transportation; 15 minutes of water drip with the LCD open and unit operating; 95 per cent humidity for ten days; exposure to silica dust, temperature extremes ranging from 60°C -28°C; thermal shocks ranging from 96°C to -51°C; atmospheric pressure of a military aircraft at 15,000 ft above the sea level; and the spark test for high fuel-air mix atmospheres.

The rugged design begins from the proprietary magnesium alloy casing which is 20 times stronger than ABS plastic and 5 times stronger than Titanium. It extends to the hard drive which is shock mounted in a metal casing with sponge and polymer compounds that insulate the disk from any shock even when the head is writing onto the drive. It further goes on to the LCD screen which is fitted with internal dampeners. Even the connectors are made flexible to absorb shock. Another unusual feature is the fan-less design and lack of an air vent. All covers are sealed by specially developed synthetic resin to protect against water and dust. There is no fan since it would become a mechanical point of failure in case of drops or vibrations. Instead ToughBooks are cooled through the body itself, by creating a casing that breathes.
According to Gartner Group, the annualized failure rate for other brands of mobile computers used outside is as high as 35 per cent while that for rugged ToughBooks is only 3 per cent. Therefore, even though the initial acquisition costs for ruggedized ToughBooks is high, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is lower.

ToughBooks are also amazingly light, almost 50% lighter than equivalent models from other brands. Inspite of their light weight, they boast of battery life of up to 8.5 hours on a single battery. ToughBooks also feature outdoor readable LCD screens making them suitable for outdoor use. This is done using a technology which captures ambient light and uses it to increase the screen brightness. Even the paint on a Toughbook is scratch resistant. Lastly, ToughBooks can support up to 4 integrated wireless WAN technologies simultaneously. So, one can have CDMA/EVDO, GPRS/EDGE, GPS and Bluetooth all working inside the laptop. The laptop has a number of built in antennas for all kinds of wireless communication on the go.

About Panasonic
Best known by its Panasonic brand name, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of US$81.44 billion for the year ended March 31, 2005. The company’s shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, New York (NYSE:MC), Euronext Amsterdam and Frankfurt stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company’s website at http://panasonic.co.jp/global/index.html. Panasonic Systems Asia Pacific (PSY) is set up to meet the needs of the markets in the Asia Pacific region. It is based in Singapore with the aim to be near the markets and to cope with the dynamic and volatile business environments. PSY supplies high-end industrial and commercial products which require solution/system sales approaches. These include IT products, general communication products (facsimiles, PBX, telephones), professional broadcast equipment, industrial/commercial grade plasmas, public address equipment, as well as security and surveillance equipment. The products, people and business of Panasonic Systems Asia Pacific are entirely dedicated to the needs of the professional user, including Fortune 1000 business and government professionals. More information on Panasonic Toughbooks and other mobility solutions are available online at www.panasonic.com.sg/toughbook.

For more information, please contact:
Sundeep Mehta/ Hemant dixit/
Team Orange Public Relations
Mobile: 09868779770
Email: smehta {at} teamorangepr(.)com

OR

Ravi Mehta
Third Wave Exim
Mobile: 09312948868
Email: ravi {at} thirdwaveonline(.)com