NAIROBI, KENYA, 21 June 2014 – DISTREE Africa 2014 hosted the ‘Africa Channel Academy: 2014 Awards’ Gala Dinner and live voting ceremony on Friday June 20th. Channel partners operating in African ICT and consumer electronics (CE) markets used a live electronic voting system to select an overall winner in each category.
In the run-up to the Gala Dinner, hundreds of channel partners across Africa submitted nomination forms to create a shortlist of vendors in each product category. The full list of nominated companies and winners for the ‘Africa Channel Academy: 2014 Awards’ was as follows:
- PCs Vendor of the Year: HP (45% of final live vote) Also Nominated: Acer, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba
- TABLETS Vendor of the Year: Samsung (58%) Also Nominated: Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Quantum
- PC ACCESSORIES Vendor of the Year: Targus (41%) Also Nominated: Belkin, Logitech, Microsoft, Promate
- TABLET & PHONE ACCESSORIES Vendor of the Year: Targus (37%) Also Nominated: Belkin, Energy Sistem, Logitech, Promate
- STORAGE Vendor of the Year: WD (59%) Also Nominated: Imation, Sandisk, Seagate, Toshiba
- SMARTPHONES & MOBILES Vendor of the Year: Samsung (68%) Also Nominated: HTC, Huawei, LG, Nokia, Tecno Mobile
- NETWORKING Vendor of the Year: Cisco (46%) Also Nominated: Belkin-Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, TP-Link
- SOFTWARE Vendor of the Year: Microsoft (40%) Also Nominated: Bitdefender, Eset, Kaspersky, Symantec (Norton)
PRINTING Vendor of the Year: HP (66%) Also Nominated: Brother, Canon, Epson, Lexmark
In addition to vendor awards by product category, this year’s ceremony also included two categories where the nominations were determined by a VIP Channel Jury of regional experts prior to the live vote. The Best in Show award shortlist was decided through a ballot of channel delegates on the morning of Friday 20th June at DISTREE Africa. The winners and nominations for the final three awards were as follows:
- NEW ENTRANT: Vendor of the Year – Xtouch (37%) Also Nominated: Eurostar, Prestigio, Quantum, Strontium, Touchmate
- Distributor of the Year – Despec (32%) Also Nominated: Mitsumi, NITI Distribution, Red Dot, Redington, Sai Office
- DISTREE AFRICA 2014: Best in Show – Energy Sistem (35%) Also Nominated: CAT Phones, Despec, Mitsumi, Quantum, Red Dot
Farouk Hemraj, CEO at DISTREE Events, said: “We were delighted to host the ‘Africa Channel Academy: 2014 Awards’ as part of the inaugural DISTREE Africa,” added Hemraj. “These are awards that actually mean something and recognise true channel excellence across African markets.”
“The African market for technology and electronics products is growing fast and this was an opportunity for partners to reward vendors and distributors for sustained channel excellence. We congratulate all the winners and nominees on their success,” he added.
