March 17th, 2000

[10:30 AM] Apple Shows More Signs Of Growth, Adds Third US Distributor by Staff Apple has announced a new distribution deal with Tech Data Corporation for authorized Macs distributing in the United States. Tech Data joins long time distributor Ingram Micro and more recent partner, Pinacor. According to Apple: Apple and Tech Data Corp. today announced an agreement authorizing Tech Data to distribute Apple's innovative hardware and software product lines throughout the US "Tech Data has made a strong commitment to help Apple get our products into the channel faster," said Mitch Mandich, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide sales. "They have the resources and commitment to help us grow and further advance our channel strategy while delivering exceptional service to our reseller network." "Apple's new direction and product line innovations are winning unanimous accolades as Apple continues to gain momentum and even stronger user loyalty within many key market segments," said Steven A. Raymund, Tech Data's chairman and chief executive officer. "We offer the economies of scale, ongoing infrastructure investments and long-term strategic direction to keep pace with the rising demand for Apple and Apple-compatible products." Tech Data is establishing a business unit to focus exclusively on Apple solutions and the requirements of Apple-authorized resellers, and will include cross-divisional support from dedicated sales, product marketing, marketing services and technical support personnel. Tech Data's European and Latin American subsidiaries already carry Apple products and are among the vendor's largest suppliers in these markets. A comprehensive marketing program is being implemented to promote the availability of Apple products from Tech Data in the US The Mac Observer Spin: The distribution network of a manufacturer is among their most vital assets, and this is particularly true for Apple. Many of you may remember when Apple pared down its network from five distributors to only one, Ingram Micro in 1997. Apple added Pinacor a few months later. This was part of Steve Jobs' efforts to trim waste and redundancy, and with Apple paring down their resellers at the same time, it was very necessary. Today we have a different situation entirely. Apple's retail presence has begun to expand again and the company's retail partners need the flexibility offered by adding a third distributor. Certainly it should help shore up channel supply problems. Note that this could hint of more national or regional resellers in the future, though we have no direct evidence of this. It would certainly be good news if this were the case. My, how times have changed. Apple - Tech Data Corporation