Apple is setting themselves up to pull the pin on retail partners such as JB Hi Fi claims Ruslan Kogan the CEO of Kogan Technology.He told a technology conference in Surfers Paradise that 30% of JB Hi’s revenue came from Apple products and when Apple does move to selling direct via their own web sites and shops it will have a major impact on retailers around the world.
Light on detail Kogan finally admitted that he had only sold 200,000 products in 3 years despite claiming 50% growth six months ago.
During an interview later Kogan admitted that the claim about Apple which he made to a packed audience of technology journalists and PR executives had not been thought through properly and that he had no evidence to support his claim.
This is the same executive who told the same conference three years ago that he was set to be the first company to launch an Android phone in australia. The phone was never released.
The publicity seeking executive also refused to reveal what his average selling price was on his Kogan web site after telling the audience that he had sold over 200,000 products in three years.
He did admit under pressure that his revenues at December 2010 were $14M, however he produced no evidence of this, claiming that Kogan Technology was a “private company”.
When asked whether his claim about Apple dumping third party partners would include carriers such as Telstra, Optus and Vodafone he said: “I will have to think about that. I have not really looked at side of their business”.
He also refused to say how many TVs he has sold despite showing the audience a picture of his web site that claimed that his company owns the #1 selling Australian owned LCD 7 LED TV brand.
He admitted that this does not mean that they sell the most TVs in Australia but that they are the number one selling Australian TV brand in Australia.
The only problem with this statement is that there are no other Australian TV brands which means Kogan could sell 10 TVs and still make the same claim.
