by Fredrick Obura

The current increase in number of fakes Information Technology products has been blamed on manufacturers’ laxity to set up distribution channels.

Lack of proper channel has seen genuine products take a beating from fakes as they take long to reach retail shelves.

Many marketers resort to selling illegal or unlicensed copies of popular software applications because they do not have access to official channels that sell and support these products.

The confusion has seen some dealers resort to selling low quality software, hardware and computer accessories.

"Unless manufacturers identify capable distributors, we will continue losing the market," said Toshiba Business Development Manager for East Africa Geoffrey Kimonge, adding that a distributor should also have technical knowledge to offer after-sale services in case of hitch.

He was speaking in Nairobi during a deal signing ceremony that will see Mitsumi as the official distributor of Toshiba products in Eastern Africa.

Businesses use pirated software due to prohibitive costs of genuine products. Beyond initial costs of software purchase, there are support and upgrade costs that add to the total costs.