EXCLUSIVE: Marketing Director Quits Netgear For Key Distributor Role

Andrew Tyler the Marketing Manager Netgear has quit after 18 months to join Sydney based distributor Panmi the distributor of the popular Xiaomi brand of products which despite the recent Coronavirus in China racked up growth of 27% in the last quarter.

Tyler joined Netgear from Western Digital where he worked with George Saad the COO of Panmi.

Prior to that Tyler was responsible for mobile phone marketing at Ingram Micro, a position that should hold him in good stead as one of the major products sold by Panmi are Xiaomi smartphones which are proving popular in Australia, ahead of other Chinese brands such as Oppo, Realme and Huawei who have been forced to sell online after carriers and retailers dropped the Chinese brand due to security concerns.

Tyler told ChannelNews that he was looking forward to his new role as he believes that Xiaomi which outsells Oppo and Realme and is the #2 brand behind Huawei in China has a lot of potential in Australia with the brand already ranged at JB Hi Fi.

Xiaomi told ChannelNews that their smartphone sales rebounded quickly in late March, underpinning resilient consumer demand due in part that a large percentage of their sales are made online via the Companies extensive web site operation.

Xiaomi recorded a 31% surge in shipments in the fourth quarter to December 30, 2019, while others in the top 5 including Huawei, Oppo and Realme either lost ground or logged single-digit growth, according to research firm IDC.

The big smartphone maker said that their manufacturing operations are back with over 80% capacity and that new products including their M10 Pro model which competes head on with the Samsung S20 5G smartphone will be available in Australia shortly.

The Company has warned that the full impact of the pandemic on its international sales — now about half its business — won’t emerge till the second quarter.

Analysts are saying that Xiaomi may be less exposed to the spread of Covid-19 than its competitors.

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David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.