STARLINE standing out in consumer electronic market

STARLINE standing out in consumer electronic market

Today is the first day of Berlin IFA show, an excellent opportunity for technology creators to show their refreshed product line-up. Starline International Group Limited from Hong Kong unveiled 8 unique flash drive designs. You may ask “Who needs yet another flash drive?” and we did, too! We managed to grab Starline’s CEO Mr. Grady Yu for a 10 minute conversation in their Hall 4.1 booth.

Multimedia I.T.: ‘There’s a plethora of flash drives in the market, why would you decide to launch so many new designs? they seem to have very similar functionality?’

Grady Yu: ‘Flash drive is an extremely common item already, I suppose everyone should have at least two by now. Based on the consumer research we’ve done, people are craving for stylish products that match their personality and lifestyle. Moving files in style is what we wanted to achieve and judging by the first comments, we did!’

Multimedia I.T.: ‘Starline is well known as OEM manufacturer, it’s rather unusual for manufacturer to invest in product design, don’t you think?’

Grady Yu: ‘ Indeed, that used to be the case, but the market is constantly changing. Our major OEM Customers want a full package: a unique product with their brand, at a competitive price, supported by excellent sales service. Most of our competitors are churning out designs available in open market, which leads to a situation where same product is sold in the same market under different brand names. That has a very negative impact on margins. Besides, take a look at our designs.. With this design and with our pricing, we are in a league of our own’

Multimedia I.T.: ‘The products look sharp, that’s true. Do you outsource the design process?’

Grady Yu: ‘We decided to bring the design process in-house, to speed the process up. The design studio is located in Poland, which helps us match the tasted of European Customers. We have attracted a lot of great talent, this is a world class team and it will certainly show in our products scheduled to be released in 2007′

Multimedia I.T.: ‘It sounds as if you were planning to expand your product lines besides the core Flash Drive business. Any hints for our readers?’

Grady Yu: ‘I would rather keep it confidential for now as the competition is not sleeping, but we will definitely stick to our strategy: lifestyle technology at a killer price.’

Multimedia I.T: ‘What do you think about the flash market in the first 3 quarters of 2006 and for the remaining part of the year?’

Grady Yu: ‘Our position in the Flash Drive segment is very strong already, we had 3% global market share in first half of the year and after recent factory expansion we are targeting 4% in the second half. We have also launched our Memory Card line to further increase the volume. In spite of those great results, we are a bit disappointed with the price situation in flash. The market has been in the downturn for at least 2 months longer than we initially expected. Luckily, the holiday period is over and the prices will surely stabilize and who knows, maybe even rise a bit in second half of September.’

Multimedia I.T: Thank you for the conversation

See Starline’s New Flash Drive Collection by Mindsailors at:
www.we-stand-out.com . Products will be available for mass production in early October 2006, in. capacities ranging from 128MB to 4GB.

To learn more about Starline please visit: www.starline.hk

ABOUT STARLINE
Starline International Group Limited is a well tuned organization, aimed at delivering of quality consumer electronics at very low prices to Customers worldwide. In the sales process, we provide level of support, which is unprecedented in the industry. Starline’s core competence is NAND Flash Memory, a segment of the market that has experienced explosive growth over the last few years. Current product lines include: USB Flash Drives, Memory Cards and MP3 / MP4 Players.

Hong Kong Office:

Starline International Group Limited
Unit 1801-1805, 18/F, Tower 2, China Hong Kong City, 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
www.starline.hk
sales {at} starline(.)hk
Contact : Mr. Douglas Ching, Marketing Manager
telephone: (+852) 23888255
fax: (+852) 23888455

Mainland China Factory:

Starline International (Shenzhen) Limited
Add: Block B 3/F-4/F, Goldstar Industrial Park, Jianan West Road, New & Hi-Tech Development Zone, Fuyong Town, Baoan, Shenzhen, China
telephone: (+86) 755 61180838
fax: (+86) 755 61180818

European Design Studio:

Starline Polska Sp. z o.o.
Wielka 8/2, 61-774 Poznan, Poland
telephone: (+48) 61 8530714
fax: (+48) 61 8530714