Value for money shines through

A look at this month’s top sellers reveals a theme that will be familiar to many retailers across the country. Despite the ongoing recession, there is still demand for IT products, but customers are looking to maximise the value of the money they spend.

In the security segment, Norton is the top seller, closely followed by the multiple user version of Kaspersky’s anti-virus suite. A key point here is that Norton 360 can often be found bundled with other products such as Microsoft Office or as an add-on to laptop sales, while the value of multiple install is self evident.

With peripherals, product bundles enjoy great popularity and the top selling stand alone keyboard is Microsoft’s bog-standard Wired 500. Ergonomic models perform well but still take second place to simplicity and value. Mouse sales buck the trend slightly, but show a prevalence of mobile mice – often the only additional purchase required when buying a mobile PC.

Elsewhere, the mid-range ATI HD4650 performs very well, not surprising given its reputation for good performance at a low price point, while Nvidia’s GeForce 9600 still competes well despite being a couple of years old now.

The most popular laptop, Dell’s Inspiron 1545 can be found on special offer at the moment for as little as £350, while most of the other listed devices, such as the Acer Aspire 7535G, can be bought for around £500.
Interestingly, the desktop segment shows a trend towards sub-£500, small form media-centric PCs. No wonder laptop sales are doing so well.