Why Isn't Avira on US Store Shelves?

Exactly. I don't disagree with a lot of what Digi said, but he's thinking with the mindset of an advanced user. There's still a good percentage of Americans connecting via dialup - I don't think they'd want to run a download, for example. And just having a presence on store shelves does translate into sales - Plenty of small software companies have stuff in stores.

Will prices go up due to the additional cost? Perhaps. Remember though, no solid business invests money in something that doesn't provide a return; Costs may not go up if the boxed product equals new sales. I did some development work for a fairly well-known S/W company, working on their BOM (Bill of Materials) systems. The cost to produce a boxed product, including the box, CD, even a manual (this is about 10 years ago, when manuals still came in the boxes) was a few dollars. These days, its probably much less.

Also, getting a boxed product going means they can also be available via Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, NewEgg, TigerDirect, etc... Known online retailers that provide rating and review systems for its users. Don't think shoppers don't look at those before making purchases. A few 5 star reviews on Avira's pointing out its performance in AV-Comparatives, for example, give the product additional credence in shopper's eyes that may have never heard of the company.

I'd be willing to be Avira has plans in the works, they are just waiting for the right time to make a North American invasion

 

the cds will contain old builds of the software, so either way, dialup or not, they will have to download it still, it will just come through the automatic updates,

infact, they would have to download even more this way, as a download of the program includes the latest signatures usually, however on a cd product it does not.

 

Most people are quite capable of and used to ordering online. They do it now with other products - large TV's, clothing, electronics, books. That is why places like Amazon or Netflix do so well. Netflix killed the Blockbuster store model.

The advantage of store shelves, is advertising. A pretty package is a very good advertisement. I don't know if the Avira red will work well though. Jarring. People like soothing safe colors.

Many don't care about what works best. They're just interested in having a product. To them Symantec, McAfee and so forth are all the same. So someone who is getting it for the first time or looking for an alternative may visit the store to check out the packages. They'll pick the nicest looking reasonable cost package but they may then look online to get that package at lower cost. The one year 3 PC's in one package deal seem to be getting popular. But gamers, like my teenage son do care about the product having low overhead and being unobtrusive. And he tells his friends. And he doesn't care about cost (I'm paying).

 

Again though, you are thinking of it as an advanced user. The Average Joe trying to secure their PC is not going to think of it that way. You are 100% right, but if the goal is to expand quality security software to the masses (and to increase revenue in the process ), then you have to think of what all of those other PC users out there are going to do.

 

You guys and girls are missing a point: tech support.
How is Avira going to manage the onslaught of tech support calls of people trying to install Antivir on machines with a trial of Norton expired? Just imagine the consequences of installing an AV over the debris of Norton.
A big jump in the installed base of a small AV company could cause some serious problems.

 

You're right; That would increase the cost, as they'd have to add staff. Still, you would hope that the additional users would bring in additional money to cover that.

The other side of it is can an Average Joe user handle the setup of a technically advanced AV? I guess what comes to mind is the old NOD32 2.x... They'd have to almost dumb it down somewhat, which causes problems on the other end.

Crud, I'm about to give up and just run Linux

 

Let's talk about the average joe a bit. If he is average then there are some more advanced than him and there are some less capable than him. So, in this case I would think only the less than average would shop for an antivirus program at Walmart and the average joe at least has enough mental capacity to buy an antivirus online.

If instead the average joe is a die-hard Walmart customer then the world may just be doomed. Sort of reminds me of a great movie a couple of years ago called Idiocracy. Maybe its coming true.

 

What about Best Buy? Amazon.com? NewEgg? I'm lumping 3rd party retailers into one, which would include those types. And yes, I believe most people buy their software in that manner (there are also plenty that just use what comes on the PC when they buy it, a la Norton).

I'm trying to Google something showing the % of security sales via the retail channels vs other, but no luck yet. I expect the vast majority are going to be via the 3rd party retail channel, but I don't expect everyone to just take my word for it, hence the search

Edit: Closest I've found so far is this: Microsoft's antivirus package makes a splash
But it doesn't really explain the difference between online via the vendor's store vs. 3rd party. However, given around 90% of the market apparently is controlled by companies that either a) have the product pre-installed on a new machine or b) sell via 3rd party retailers, I expect what I'm saying above to be true. Idiocracy? Perhaps...

 

Don't forget that having a presence in B&M stores builds mindshare

 

Yep, and what concerns me most is the server situation, which has always been a sore spot for them as long as I can remember.. How will their servers handle the onslaught of new PCs polling for updates every hour or so?

 

Well, that is easy. It would never occur to the average user to change the updating from default which is once a day. Plus, the average user still turns off the computer when they are through using it.

I think the most important thing is for Avira to get on OEM machines. If they can enter the USA retail market then I see no reason they can't get on OEM computers. That is worth more than retail market shelf space in making folks aware of Avira. Of course, the OEMs are going to require that Avira have a lot better support than they presently have but Avira will have to beef up the support if they want on retail shelves also. They can begin by having a USA website and a USA based support forum like Kaspersky did with ICE.

 

Some very good points have been made here. Let me add this. It took a long time for me to buy something over the net and to this very day I still don't much care for it. However with sites and license codes that you can go back to the site and keep getting your software and making it "whole" by putting your code in it helps a lot....but still there is something about being able to put your hands on it, hold the product in your hand, turn the pages of the manual, (after all that will never go out of range of your wireless), while it is installing you can read about it's features and how things work.

Please I hope no one asks me if I ever heard of a printer

It's just me I guess....

 

I am not against a boxed version as much as the idea of pursuing a mass distribution plan to get Antivir on Walmart's shelves. With 20 years of marketing and image consulting experience on my shoulders, I would never take that route. As I mentioned before, there are other new economy strategies that would be more effective and less costly to the consumer. Bundling is the first strategy, such as getting Antivir already installed on a new machine or buy software X and get a free 1 year subscription to Avira Premium, etc. Another strategy is online retail which isn't as bloody and expensive as brick and mortar retail. Another strategy is building online presence through blogs, reviews, and the like. And there are many other viable, less costly strategies that should be more effective than brick and mortar distribution. In the end, I am convinced that Antivir would not win share of mind when the average joe has to choose between it and the more established companies with brand dominance. And considering that Norton is gaining again in popularity, this makes success even more difficult.

What I am more curious about is the "average joe" and his buying strategies. I would think the average joe would first look for a free antivirus and thus use the Antivir Classic version anyway. If not, then there's the Windows offerings, AVG and Avast. So going after the average joe may be a dead end street. And let's not forget that even though the average joe is not that tech savvy, I bet they are capable of easily getting a cracked version as well. So, as I toy with this a little more, I am more convinced that Avira Premium is more of a premium software that should be marketed more like a Ferrari and less like a Fiat. And you are not going to find Ferraris in Walmart.

 

So, by your reasoning you are saying Kaspersky and NOD32 are Fiats? And they were stupid to go retail store route?

 

Nah...it is not just you. I was so happy to get Acronis TI 10 on a Seagate disk that came with my new Seagate drive. I have another Seagate drive and thus I was eligible for downloading the new DiscWizard that has TI 10 but that didn't appeal. I like having the physical disk. I guess though after reading posts today, I would not want a real Vista disk boxed or Office 2007. I gather it is extremely difficult to open those boxes.

 

I'm sure they wouldn't just mass-produce millions of boxes and send it out, there would be a plan in place. I would produce boxed sets and make them available on Amazon.com, for example. Maybe find a few PC manufacturers and include the software pre-installed. Build some mindshare in a controlled manner.

Most consumers don't know about AVG and Avast, never mind AntiVir. Less than 10% of US consumers use anything outside of Norton, McAfee, Trend, or Microsoft (at least according to that article I posted above). From my understanding, Avira is a decent-sized company with corporate clients in Europe -- They should have the dollars to try and make a push in the US, if any of the smaller AVs do.

 

I do love manuals. They are much nicer in professional booklet form vs printing. Unfortunately, in this day and age, buying a retail box does not guarantee a manual.

 

If you download and burn the program to disc you now have a physical disc no different then had they sent it to you minus any fancy images or text.

Blank cds are dirt cheap.

 

@GrailVG
Thanks for pointing that out...... it would seem that some people will never get that concept or understand the methods.
Cheers

 

I don't think $17 for 50 blank CD's is cheap. Plus, you have to buy a decent burning program. The only two that have ever worked on my Dells are Nero Burning ROM and Alcohol 120. I tried all the free ones and none worked. The crappy one that came on my Dells was horrible and burned 5 coasters to one good CD. That means it used to cost $1.70 to get one good CD burned. So, you have to factor in the cost of a good burning program and you have to realize that when the CDROM drive has problems likely the first problems will be with burning not with reading disks. The drive will pass OEM tests so even if under warranty the OEM won't replace a drive that consistently makes a lot of coasters. You have to wait until the drive is in bad enough shape that it can't read before the OEM will replace it. So, having a disk with no errors, and that works properly, that comes with the application is a very nice thing to have.

 

I can get 100 quality blank CDs at Fry's here in L.A. for $19.00, so that's what? 19 cents each? I guess that qualifies for "dirt cheap"..

I used v3 of CDBurnerXP Pro for a long time with never one problem. So that's easy too. I have been thru a couple burners in the past 6 years, but also got plenty of life out of them.

So anyhow, I don't see any problems burning stuff to CD... The cost of packaging a product, plus producing and printing a manual for it, and making the CD, and all that goes into a shelf product must amount to something.. Personally, I'd just as soon see them skip all that and give me a little break on the price.

 

i dont agree with Avira 'getting on the shelves',

but i would like to see OEM versions, same for drweb and many of the other smaller vendors.

its a good way to boost awareness for the software, and hopefully boost purchases.

 

My point was that not everyone lives where there are tons of stores with tons of merchandise. Blanket assumptions should not be made. Here there is Wal-Mart and Office Max and you frequently cannot even find blank CD's at any price....only DVD's and I have a DVD reader not burner. The price for blank CD's is high here if you can find them. Space is very expensive even in Hilo now so stores don't expand and don't carry many items. Safeway had announced the first of this year that they would build a new store here because they have very little shelf space and many items in the ads are not carried because they have no place to put them. Well, almost a year has gone by with nothing happening and yesterday I was told that Safeway has decided land is too expensive in Hilo so no new store and no renovation of the current one thus the continued problem of lack of items due to lack of space.

Same goes for CD burners. I have what Dell installed and my experience with Dell burners has been that they are not very good ....any of the brands. This one has been ok for the 23 months I have had this computer. But it didn't come in this computer. I removed the refurb one that Dell had replaced for the third time in my older XP computer when Dell finally replaced the entire computer as the one in the new computer was a Sony (UGH). This refurb Hitachi has been ok after I replaced the ribbon cables THREE TIMES on the new machine before Dell managed to send any working ones. The original ones were DOA.

I'm happy things work well for you and that you live in a monster city on the Mainland with tons of shopping opportunities but not everyone is like you. I'll take the store bought CD any day over the uncertainty of whether or not I can burn a CD. My older Dell 98SE machine still works much better than any newer machines but I bought it three months before CDROM RW became available so I can't fall back on it. Besides, many older folks don't burn and have no burning software. Should they be limited to only buying Norton and McAfee? Of course, now they can get NOD32 and Kaspersky in real stores. I really don't understand why Avira should not do what Eset and Kaspersky have done.

 

Your welcome.

 

Yet that is not what you said Mele20.

You said and I quote,

Even if it came to $2.50 a disk it is still last I looked cheaper then buying a disk from the vendor unless you have to have that fancy label