Zinox is Nigeria’s No. 1 Selling Notebook, Says IDC

Written by This Day Monday, 02 August 2010

THISDAY Special Release

The laptop range of Zinox Computers, Nigeria’s first internationally certified branded computers, has emerged the best selling notebooks in the Nigerian market, according to the latest report by International Data Corporation (IDC), the US-based global leader in market research and analysis in information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology.

The report shows that Zinox Computers continues to perform very strongly, ensuring a quality Nigerian participation in a market that would have been completely dominated by foreign brands.

The Q2 2010 IDC report posted on the company’s web site reveals that Zinox laptops are the fastest growing and best selling Notebooks in the Nigerian market.
Zinox is strongest in the laptop market where it leads six other international brands, including HP, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo and LG Electronics, with a 53.6% market share and a year-on-year growth of 799 per cent, while its closest competitor, HP, achieved a 23.6 per cent market share.

In the desktop computer category, Zinox came second with an 11.4 per cent share as the market defines a HP/Zinox rivalry.
The IDC report showed that Zinox has a share of 32.5 per cent of the Total PC market, a remarkable achievement for an indigenous brand that has been in the market for less than a decade.

Commenting on the report, the chairman of Zinox Computers, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, said that the report has justified the vision, hard work, capital outlay, human resources and patriotism that have gone into the building of the Zinox brand.

He said that he was satisfied that Nigerians are proving that if given the opportunity they could compete and overcome even the best in the world while admitting that though they had initially challenges like any other company but they have stabilised in the last three years.
He recalled that amidst scepticism in government circles, among professionals, and the general public, he had declared at the launch in 2001 that Zinox was a public trust and a spiritual commitment.

He had proclaimed that Zinox had the finances, the know-how, and the will to make the brand a source of national pride. Ekeh said that he was proud that less than a decade after that launch, the Zinox brand was keenly competing for space with foreign and international brands.

He said that the success of the Zinox brand is traceable to the strict adherence to international quality standards and processes.
“For example,” he said, “the launch of Zinox was delayed for some years to enable Zinox Computers to attain the Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL), a certification that remained exclusive to Zinox among the indigenous manufacturers for many years. 

“In 2005, just four years after launch, Zinox received the NIS ISO 9001:2000 quality and management processes certification. In recognition of its quest for excellence, the brand has won all known international and local Awards from professional associations, and remains the largest partners of Intel and Microsoft Inc. in sub Saharan Africa. And just in June 2010, Intel, the number 1 Microchips producers in the world, profiled Zinox Computers in its newsletter as African Digital success story based on her achievements and growth.” 

Ekeh explained that the flagship of the Zinox charge in the market is the Bijimi (Digital work horse in Hausa) laptop which comes in two variants: the Bijimi PRO and the Bijimi Sage, The Zinox Pride Notebook, “an all-time best seller loaded with over 1,000,000 e-books and other contents like JAMB,WAEC, NECO etc exams revision questions and answers. This dominance of the laptop market is also helped in no small way by the rapid market penetration gained by the Zinox Smart mini notebooks in partnership with Intel.” The performance is based on a strategy of continually identifying and reaching professionals, the underserved or un-reached.

This is evident in the fact that Zinox Computers today is responsible for over 75 per cent of the computerization going on in the educational sector. The Zinox strategy has also been greatly helped by the number of branches in Nigeria (14 at the last count) which is the largest run by any computer company in Nigeria, enabling an after sales support that is accessible from anywhere in Nigeria with additional support agreement with TD Plus Ltd, a wholly after sales support company.

“These branches are staffed by internationally certified Nigerian professionals and that’s why we were able to intervene to save major national and international events in Nigeria like the All Africa Games (COJA 2003), Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2003) and the INEC voters’ registration of 2006. Armed with this high quality product portfolio, human resources and an impeccable patriotic will, becoming No. 1 was only a matter of time – because the Zinox brand was configured to be Number One,” added Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh.

He said these achievements wouldn’t have been possible without the support and prayer of governments and people of Nigeria, “in particular [former] President Olusegun Obasanjo and corporates who have shown faith in the Nigerian dream by standardizing on Zinox”.
Zinox Computers was launched in October 2001 as Nigeria’s IT Identity. From inception, Zinox has scored a number of firsts: first computer company in Nigeria to acquire the WHQL, first Nigerian computer company to introduce the Naira sign on its international keyboard, first Nigerian computer manufacturer to attain the ISO certification, first to receive presidential endorsement as computer of choice for Nigeria, among others.

Faithful to its Nigerian roots, Zinox has given back generously to support the growth of a knowledge economy. These include initiating the Computerize Nigeria Project to create awareness and access to the computer as a major tool for work and play; the establishment of digital centres at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Lagos State Polytechnic, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, among others.

Zinox has been a major sponsor of seminars, lectures and symposiums, aimed at capacity building, for the civil society. Zinox has also distinguished itself in large sponsorships – sponsoring the 8th All Africa Games in 2003, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM, in 2003, the official computer of the African Union Heads of States meeting in 2005 at the Gambia. Zinox is a regular major sponsor of all ICT professional bodies in Nigeria.