Despite “lower than expected take-up” of the Altech Node video-on-demand and home automation set-top box, Altron remains committed to the product and is exploring new opportunities to improve its market share.
That’s the word from Altron CEO Robbie Venter, who was speaking to TechCentral on Wednesday morning, shortly after the group published disappointing annual results for the year ended 28 February 2015.
“Altron TMT is well advanced in terms of exploring alternative opportunities and routes to market for its new entertainment and home automation system, Altech Node, which was launched in September 2014 but has experienced a disappointing consumer uptake to date,” the group said in commentary alongside its results.
“It hasn’t met our expectations,” Venter said on Wednesday. Retail take-up has been disappointing, he said.
But he said the technology behind the Node is sound. “It’s great IP, but it’s maybe ahead of its time.”
He said other video-on-demand providers, launched around the same time, are also facing challenges.
Altron is now exploring potential partnerships, beyond the retail channel, that would boost sales of the product. “Our next big push will be the partnership approach.”
He said the content provided on the Node is “satisfactory” for the South African market but concedes that the product may have been “over-engineered”.
“It confuses consumers when there are so many things that a product can do. Maybe there was a bit of over-engineering,” he said.
Venter declined to disclose sales numbers for the Node, citing “competitive reasons”. — © 2015 NewsCentral Media