Singapore laptop maker Axioo enters RP market

SEAGATE and Creative are the only two Singaporean IT brands that have name recall in the Philippines. However, an upstart firm wants to join its Singaporean brethren.

Axioo International is the latest OEM (original equipment manufacturer) notebook to enter the somewhat saturated laptop market. Nevertheless, the company is confident that there is a market for their product in Asia, including the Philippines.

Here's a video interview I conducted with Axioo International managing director Stephen Lim, who talks about the Singapore-based company's decision to launch its laptops in the Philippines. In the Philippines, the company recently introduced their Zetta series; the mid-level Zetta TEN and the high-performance Zetta TEC. The former uses Pentium a Dual Core processor, an Intel GMA X3100 graphics card, 1 Gigabyte of memory, 120 Gb of hard disk space, integrated Wifi antenna and an optional Bluetooth receiver.

Meanwhile, the Zetta TEC is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2Gb of memory, GMA X3100 integrated graphics, 160Gb of hard disk space, integrated wifi and Bluetooth.

Although the two models have different specifications, they are also the same size with 13.3-inch LCD screen. They also come in at least four colors (red, black, pink and green) though there were also some models that came in white, blue and yellow.

Apart from the Zetta Ten and Tec models, the company will also be introducing its own version of the Classmate PC, which sports very basic parts, a 7-inch monitor and uses Linux with a graphical user interface.

In the interview, Lim said the company's products are aimed at students, small-office-home office and small business markets that are looking for alternative laptop brands.

"We don't want to claim that we're targeting the same market as the more established brands but since we've only started we're aiming for brand recall," Lim said.

Axioo only started manufacturing notebooks this year and has a plant in Singapore. The company also only recently started showcasing their products in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

Lim has not provided pricing for their products in the Philippines yet but said that these will be competitively priced with current local brands.

Axioo will be distributed in the Philippines by Millennium Computers Technology.