GLOBAL TOP BRANDS

Driven by constant advancements of the information technology, the meaning of the prefix “i" keeps evolving. In the 1990s, “i" stood for the “Internet”, a time when every high-tech company has its own “i"-strategy. At the dawn of the 21st Century, Apple’s iPod started a brand new “i"-era, in which the prefix “i" is emblematic of the Apple Age with the roll-out of iPhone and iPad. As a result, peripheral brands in the Apple industrial chain boomed by providing services to iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac products, and some are even sparkling on the global IT market. As the power of the Apple industrial chain gets further enhanced and smart consumer electronic products prevails, the Apple peripheral industry is also expanding and penetrating, among which the peripheral accessary is undoubtedly the most profitable segment.

Global iBrands Top 20 are selected from the global Apple industrial chain

The Apple-effects enabled by Apple’s technology and products results in fast expansion of the new-type consumer electronics industrial chain and explosion of the customer base. The “i"-series Apple products and the Apple brand is not only leading the trend of the consumer electronics industry, but also heralds the future of global technological innovation and industrial development. Today, with further updates of the Apple products and the launch of new hits such as iPhone5 and iPad mini, the Apple-peripheral industry is expected to further expand and penetrate, and the industrial chain is expected to produce greater energy, among which brands of peripheral accessories are undoubtedly the most profitable segment. How to make more consumers and partners get to know these trends and innovations? That’s exactly the purpose of Global iBrands Top 20.

Global iBrands Top 20 is a grand international competition targeting brands in the Apple-peripheral industrial chain, aiming to build Global iBrands an authoritative international platform of communication and cooperation and to help brands in the Apple-peripheral industrial chain in their globalization efforts. The event is sponsored by International Data Group (IDG) and supported by the expert team of Macworld, research firm IDC, and more than 300 trade media around the world. This international gala event, represented by iPad, iPhone, iPod and iTV, centers on global Apple-peripheral industrial chain brands, and serves as a platform of international communication, display and cooperation for these brands. It focuses on premiumbrands, reveals the glamour of technology and arts, and salutes to premium quality.

According to sources, this year’s Global iBrands reviewed the international top brands designed for the “i"-series in 2012, and announced the iFans’ most popular brands, their customer service satisfaction survey and the consumer favorable brands. The competition gives Global iBrands awards in 6 categories –Best Protective Brands, , Best  Accessory Brands, Best Cooperators, Most Fashionable and Creative Brands, Most Popular Brands, plus  enterprises with comprehensive brand and longer Apple product lines. In addition to the Top 20 prizes, this competition also awards  single product prizes for excellent single products.

After more than seven months’ selection, Global iBrands Top 20 held a grand awarding ceremony on the 46th International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 9, 2013, announcing the top 20 brands in the global Apple-peripheral industrial chain in 2012. The winners were selected based on dimensions of sales figure, indigenous innovation, quality, brand influence, planning and management, after going through processes including application and registration, survey, data analysis, voting and judge panel recommendation. Finally, 20 top companies in the Apple industrial chain beat the others to take the crown on this iBrands awarding ceremony. The winners are: Otterbox, Ultimate Ears, Novothink, Dexim, Mophie, Sennheiser, Griffin, iLuv, Pinlo, Targus, Monster, Moshi, X-doria, justmobile, Bowers & Wilkins, iPEARL, Rock, CaseMate, Gissar and iWALK20. They took the trophy from Bob Carrigan, CEO of IDG. X-doira and DXPOWER also won the product innovative design award on the ceremony. The winners collectively show the world how splendidly technology and arts can be combined on Apple-peripheral products, and give the global Apple users the opportunity to appreciate premium Apple industry chain products.

Alliance and transformation are key to answering the challenges for Apple

As the mobile Internet ecosystem matures and the Android ecosystem is increasingly invading Apple’s market share, the Apple industrial chain is confronted with huge pressure one more time. Though the market value of Apple remains world number one, its market position begins to be shaken and it is constantly challenged by competitors. As for the hardware, Samsung, Nokia and other market players are attacking iPhone with of their blockbuster products. As for the App, , Apple needs to enhance its competitive edges and give greater support to its industrial alliances.

The judge panel of this year’s Global iBrands Top 20 agree that for a close-end Apple, once a wedge was broken through on the product side and its strengths in the ecosystem becomes not as important, Apple will face challenges far more severe than that of Google. For companies in this industrial chain, it is crucial to grasp the trend and direction of the future, build their own brands, and transform themselves.

According to the judge panel, while the Apple industrial chain still has dominant strengths, the iBrands companies need to solidify their professional reserve, including technology power and talent pool, to closely follow the industrial trend and establish preemptive advantages. In addition, companies need to establish and develop their independent brands on different levels to win recognition from more consumers and partners to reserve the power of development in the future.

On the basis of the CES platform, Global iBrands Top 20 effectively shows and elevates the influence of Global iBrands Top 20 companies. The CES with a history of 45 years has become a top-tier window that offers the product launch information of all the giant electronics companies in the world and their advancements in technology, and advocates a forward-looking lifestyle. It can help the prize-winners to present their brilliance to international media and got extensive coverage on the CES Daily and TWICE CES Special. They will also become hot topics in the follow-up reports on more than 300 international media. What’s more, these companies will also get the opportunity to enter in partnership with renowned vendors in the Apple industrial chain, effectively find international partners, enhance channel construction, and supply strong forces of development to speed up their pace of globalization.

Leads the trend of Apple industrial chain with combination of technology and style

Among the prize winners of Global iBrands Top 20, OtterBox, Pinlo, x-doria, iPEARL, Rock, GISSAR, DXPOWER and Sennheiser were topnotch representatives with unique product competitive edges and innovation capabilities.

OtterBox, started up in 1998 in the US, concentrates on developing precise and refined protection covers for consumer electronic products. Instead of only focusing on sleek outlook or fancy colors or competing with rivals on design, the company makes efforts on elevating product value and utility, so as to meet customer needs in different working conditions. Among OtterBox’s complete product line for music players, PDA, mobile phone and other electronic products, the protection device designed for iPod and iPhone are particularly preferred by consumers in different corners of the world.

X-doria, a U.S. high-end accessory brand, was crowned as a Top 20 iBrand and also received the award of “Product Innovative Design” with its classical product Defense 360. In 2012, X-doria paid more attention to hand-made, refined craftwork, and added a stylish touch to products with layers of fluorescent colors that perfectly inherits the trendy and premium design quality of the X-doria brand. Since the launch of iPhone5, X-doria has brought more than 100 new accessory products to iFans around the world and hit the sales record of more than 1 million of protection shell for iPhone5 within the first week of release.

The name of Gissar originates from an ancient and mysterious road abound of aspiration for and imagination of the future. Started up in Seoul of Korea, Gissar designs and produces trendy accessories for high-end digital products, reaching out to customers in more than 20 countries. It becomes one of the most recognized and popular brand thanks to the brilliant color, exquisite craftwork and high quality, and enjoys fame in and out of the country. Gissar is dedicated to meeting the needs of fashionable customers and digital fans, and has developed many series of products that hit the market around the globe with great popularity by using the global fads elements.

Pinlo was established in the UK in 2010 with the purpose of designing stylish covers for iPhones. The company sticks to the philosophy of “difference” and “elegance” to provide the best peripheral accessories for Apple products and keep bringing wonders to Apple users by combining innovative design with state-of-art technology. Today, Pinlo offers a complete line of products that cover almost all kinds of needs, such as the best-selling portable power pack, leather shell for tablets, and Austria crystal dust plug.

iPEARL, one of the renowned digital accessory brands in the world, was established in 2005 in North Carolina of the US and entered China in 2006. iPEARL specializes in the design and production of personalized, stylish, portable and innovative digital accessory products. It brings innovative technology, smart creative ideas and portal features into the popular digital products, covering peripheral products of digital electronics, protection peripherals and connectivity technology for all product lines of Apple and Samsung, to meet the diversified needs of customers.

Rock Technology, headquartered in Shenzhen of China, was established in 2009. The company concentrates on providing stylish, refined and innovative 3C digital peripheral products. Today the company boasts four self-owned brands -- Rock, Sugee , iHave and 8THDAYS. Its business scope includes cell phone protection, tablet protection, laptop bag, camera bag, accessory bag, portal power pack, car charger, cables and materials, audio products, holder products, and APP software.

DXPOWER is the inventor and initiator of portable power pack in the world and also a famed brand of accessory products for cell phones, tablets, digital products. In as early as 2004, the parent company of DXPOWER successfully developed the first portable power pack in the world, which is the embryo of this product in the world and got patent rated as “national practical and new product”. The company is committed to applying latest technology and innovation to the development of sleek, high-quality and high energy-efficiency products. Its products have received many international certificates including CE, FCC and ROHS, and are award winners in China and the world.

Sennheiser is the top of the line solution provider electroacoustic products, system integration and service integration in the world. Headquartered in Germany, the company is dedicated to providing the best acoustic feast to users around the world. For more than 60 years, the brand Sennheiser is synonymous of “supremacy” that keeps leading trends of the audio technology. Crossing the boundary of sound recording, transmission and reduplication, the company strives to provide the best products and customized services and solutions. It develops new products by constantly challenging itself to meet all customer needs.

iFans cheered around the world every time the connotation of “i" is updated. Every progress of the “i"-series enables a new business opportunity to enterprises in the global Apple industry chain. Any company, big or small, has the opportunity to turn itself in the future. For Global iBrands Top 20 winners, it will be helpful if they keep their acuteness towards the future and proactively reserve innovation power to stay on the top of the trends of style and technology.