British Telecom has signed up high street retailer Dixons Group Plc to sell its new portable facsimile machine to spearhead a major thrust into the fax market. Called the CF9, the fax – from Toshiba Corp affiliate Tokyo Electric – costs just under UKP1,000, is the size of a portable typewriter and is designed to appeal to the Saturday shopper. It announced three other new fax machines earlier this month and these now form the core of its fax range, casting doubt on the future role of its traditional bottom-end HS20 fax offering. Telecom hopes that its alliance with Dixons will mirror the success of the Dixons-Amstrad collaboration and has set its sights on a 15% share of the fax market by the end of the year. It currently has just 10% of the volume market (35,000 in the UK) with NEC in the lead with 20%. Telecom will also sell the CF9 through its own sales force, independent distributors and other unidentified high street retailers.
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