Ingram's V7 announces new higher-margin line of keyboards and mice 23 January, 2009 By Vanessa Ho

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"Our primary strategy is products that surround the PC," said Chris Lorenz, senior director, vendor management, Ingram Micro's North American V7 Private Label Group. "If you look at some of the other categories that we are in today like V7 toner, cables, carrying cases, etc. & keyboards and mice as accessories fit very well with that strategy."

He added that V7 wanted to be able to provide products that have longer product lifecycles and saw from their research that many of their customers, especially the VAR segment, were buying unbranded keyboards and accessory products they were not familiar with.

"They are looking for a solution that again provides a value proposition to them or high quality and they know is backed by a multi-billion dollar company like Ingram Micro," noted Lorenz.

The V7 keyboards are available in four different styles: standard, multimedia, natural and wireless. The mice are available in two different styles: wired USB optical and 2.4GHz wireless optical.

The standard keyboard, featuring a 10-key numeric pad, is lightweight and features curved keys for added comfort. This product is priced at $9.99 (US).

The multimedia keyboard, priced at $14.99, is a compact-sized keyboard that features nine one-touch hot keys to quickly access music and multimedia functions, soft-touch keys and tactile feedback for comfortable typing.

Priced at $29.99, the natural keyboard features 21 one-touch hot keys to quickly access music and multimedia functions, microphone and speaker jacks and soft-touch keys with tactile feedback.

The 2.4GHz wireless keyboard with mouse combo features a wireless keyboard with eight frequently used hot keys and a wireless three-button optical mouse with scroll wheel for $39.99.

"System integrators are looking for a standard solution versus one that capitalizes on multi-media capabilities so you are going to want different types of keyboards. [We] want to make sure we have a portfolio that is broad enough to demonstrate that we are serious in this category as oppose to being a single SKU within a category," said Robert Forster, director of marketing and communications with V7.

The 3-Button wired optical mouse features an 800DPI optical sensor and a scroll wheel for $7.99.

Priced at $19.99, the 3-Button 2.4GHz Wireless Optical Mouse features an 800DPI optical sensor and a scroll wheel.

The benefit for VARs offering these products is it helps round out a white box PC system they might be developing for their SMB customers. "These keyboards and mice complement that very well and provides an opportunity to make additional margins on that sale because these products are well aligned with the features and benefits that are considered cutting edge today and they don't cost as much as some of the A brands do," Lorenz noted.

From an SMB standpoint, he added customers want to be sure they are buying products that are sound, have the right warranties and are going to be useful for them over a period of time because SMBs probably aren't refreshing their technology on a frequent basis. Lorenz said that V7 keyboards and mice fit that bill.

All V7 keyboards and mice are available in black with silver accents. Also, all the products are backed by a one-year end-user warranty and are sold through Ingram Micro's broad network of VARs, systems integrators and e-tail websites in North America and Europe.