Dovado announces quarter of a million routers sold
“Find your niche, and be the best at it,” says Samir Madani, co-founder of Dovado, Sweden’s only mobile broadband router startup company.
“That was our plan since inception in early 2004,” he adds, “at a time when mobile telephony became a thing and Sweden’s telecom infrastructure made Dovado’s transition into mobile broadband inevitable.”
Today, Dovado announced that they have sold more than a quarter of a million routers. No small feat for the team of nine based out of Kista, Stockholm, in Sweden.
The rise of Dovado may not have been meteoric, but the advent of 4G in Sweden and across the world means that consumers are steadily warming up to Dovado’s mobile broadband routers. Currently, the company’s products include a range of USB-friendly devices such as the flagship home router (PRO), one of the world’s smallest 4G routers (TINY), as well as a portable battery-powered 4G router (GO).
“The bulk of our sales have been in Sweden,” admits Samir, where it’s no surprise that products such as the portable battery-powered GO have sold extremely well, due to Sweden’s love of summer houses, boats and of course, 4G connectivity.
The milestone of 250,000 units sold was made possible through mobile and media operators such as Telia, Telenor, Tele2, Tre and Viasat as well as international sales stretching from Denmark to Australia (and rather notably, multiple bäst-i-test awards as well as 14th place (3rd in hardware) in last year’s Hit-bolagen 2013.
“But our focus isn’t just about churning out hardware iterations.” He emphasizes that the key to sustained sales and a loyal customer base has been their ongoing modem and customer support, and frequent (and free) firmware upgrades. He goes on to note that support is often the achilles heel of larger router manufacturers, where the product end-of-life is shorter and customers are often left disgruntled by lack of updates. ”It’s up to us to take the initiative where other manufacturers have faltered,” he adds, “When it comes to customer support, it’s an all-or-nothing game. You’ve got to go all-in or not at all. And it’s this commitment that has upped our brand loyalty and helped us pass this milestone today.”
“Despite the challenges, we currently support over 200 USB modems and peripheral devices. This has been the discerning strength that has kept Dovado going and growing.” Samir indicated that a shift towards software-based solutions could also be an option, and that big things were in store for Dovado this coming year.
Indeed, we’re excited to see what the future will bring for Sweden’s only broadband router company!
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