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A company that has worked with corporate customers can enter the retail market In January and February 2024, the developer and manufacturer of electronics Aquarius filed applications for registration of over a dozen new trademarks, according to the SPARK-Interfax database. Among the applications there are Aquarius AQbase, Aquarius AQbios, Aquarius AQdesk, Aquarius AQstor, as well as the trademark "Chelobrek". Trademarks are registered in a wide range of classes, for example, the development of smart speakers, smart cards, smart glasses, smartphones, including folding ones, smart watches and other electronics. The representative of the company did not comment on what these trademarks are for.

Now Aquarius produces PCs, monitors, monoblocks, laptops, tablets, PDAs, servers, storage systems and switches. The company operates in the b2b segment and delivers solutions to government customers. Aquarius devices are included in the register of domestic products of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and, thus, have preferences in public procurement.

Aquarius plans to sell its devices and solutions on marketplaces and online stores under new trademarks, an interlocutor of Vedomosti told one of the electronics manufacturing companies. Two more interlocutors in other electronics manufacturers note that we are talking about creating a brand of devices recognizable to retail users.

Initially, Alexey Kalinin, chairman of the Board of Directors and co-owner of Aquarius, mentioned plans to enter the retail market in an interview with Forbes in August 2023, but he did not disclose any details about which solutions the company plans to sell at retail. In addition to Kalinin, the co-owner of Aquarius is the president of the company, Vladimir Stepanov.

"Given the regularity of trademark registration and the company's plans to develop its own OS based on open source Android (Kommersant wrote about these plans in early February. – Vedomosti), it can be assumed that Aquarius is preparing to expand into the Russian retail market, – one of the sources believes. "To successfully enter the b2c market, the company is repackaging its products, striving to create a recognizable and understandable brand for the end consumer, similar to other modern IT ecosystems."

Trademarks could be needed for the transition from the state and corporate segment to retail, says another source at the equipment manufacturer. In his opinion, the reorientation from b2b to b2c implies not only a change in the appearance of products, but also the development of an integrated ecosystem that ensures the interaction of various devices and software solutions.

For example, in Russia, KNS Group (produces computing equipment under the Yadro brand) did the same. The company has created a new Kvadra brand for tablets, laptops and PCs. A shockproof tablet under this brand was presented at the CIPR-2023 forum, and the launch of tablet sales was originally scheduled for the autumn of the same year. In addition, in early April 2023, KNS Group published a number of vacancies on HH.ru From which it followed that the company was assembling a mobile OS development team based on the open source Android code.

Registration of new trademarks is a standard practice for all vendors selling hardware in online retail, experts say. "The old brand is being retained for public procurement, and a new one is being introduced for retail. Because in the public sector, equipment is sold at one price, and it is already being sold at another price," explains another source in the industry company.

Judging by the submitted applications, Aquarius plans to create a closed ecosystem of solutions, notes another interlocutor of Vedomosti among electronics developers. In the future, the company may launch its own app store based on this ecosystem, he believes.

The company's product portfolio is rapidly expanding, said Olga Shernek, Product Director of the Aquarius Group. "We have big plans for the future to develop our product portfolio, so we are introducing a new product categorization system and naming principles. This will make it easier for our partners and customers to work with our catalogs. But there are no plans to open an app store yet," Shernek concluded.

In November 2023, Kommersant wrote that Aquarius intends to invest 40 billion rubles by 2026 in expanding production and creating new products, in particular smart TVs, watches and speakers. The expansion of the company's product range was planned as part of the Russian Gadget project. The draft referred to by the newspaper stated that 4.5 billion rubles were needed by Aquarius to increase production capacities in Tver and Shuya. Another 3 billion rubles each. The company intended to spend on entering the capital of an Asian IT developer (which one, it was not specified) for access to technologies and a Russian distributor. The company requested these funds from the state. The remaining 29.5 billion rubles were planned to be invested in development, production and marketing.

Due to the departure of international brands and the instability of the ruble exchange rate, laptops under Russian brands have become competitive in the budget segment, says independent expert Alexander Surkov. We have two categories of companies that, in theory, can offer Russian laptop brands, he explains. Firstly, these are companies with production capabilities, but without their own sales channels, such as Aquarius, Bayterg and Fplus. Secondly, these are large retail chains, backed by distributors who have accumulated expertise in the sale of imported equipment (such as Citylink, DNS), or marketplaces that offer their own products (Ozon, Wildberries, etc.), the expert lists.

But the retail market is very far from what Aquarius has always been doing, warns Sergey Villanov, an analyst at the Fintech Lab accelerator. "The registered trademarks indicate that the company is ready to burn several billion to explore a new market. Because at the moment, the brand is completely unknown in the b2c segment," he concluded.

Source: https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2024/03/01/1023112-akvarius-zaregistriroval-chelobreka-i-esche-neskolko-tovarnih-znakov?utm_campaign=newspaper_1_3_2024&utm_medium=email&utm_source=vedomosti