A new Macintosh distributor has entered the computer market in Slovakia. CDS, s.r.o., a newly-created sister company of Apple's third largest European distributor, MDS, announced in December the establishment of two new stores and a pledge to strengthen all aspects of Apple's distribution network with Slovakia's 26 Macintosh dealers, including subsidiaries.
Since 1991, Apple has had difficulty penetrating a market dominated since the Velvet Revolution by Intel-based computer distributors. At a press conference in Bratislava on December 12, Jean-Paul Rigal, Apple Inc.'s eastern Europe country manager, said, "the tough times are behind us," but added that now was the time to "demonstrate [Apple's] high dedication to support the resellers."
CDS, which also distributes Macintosh goods for MDS in the Czech Republic, plans to "reinforce" what Jozef Polomský, CDS's dealer coordinator in Slovakia called Apple's "negligible" 2.5 share of the Slovak market, of which the strongest segment is desktop publishing.
Polomský told The Slovak Spectator that Apple-Macintosh will also promote Macintosh products for use in science, education, small and home offices, the Internet, commercial printing and intermedia, architectural design and aerospace engineering.
