Does brand matter?

Last weekend, I accompanied my husband to Sim Lim Square, a popular PC mall in Singapore, to buy a new home computer. He chose a white box PC with brand-name components, and finally settled on the best value-for-money deal after comparing prices.

I suppose he didn't care for a brand-name computer because he is tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot issues himself, and it is, after all, a home computer which he will use largely for playing games and surfing the Internet.

However, buying computers for business is an entirely different matter, isn't it? There is the issue of support, a key selling point for branded manufacturers. And brand does matter when you think about the old adage that "you can't get fired for buying IBM".

But when it comes to brands: How do Asian brands stack up against non-Asian brands?

In the consumer technology market, much has been discussed and written about why Singapore's Creative Technology is still trailing behind Apple in MP3 sales. What about Asian companies that provide technologies to businesses? Do homegrown Asian tech companies have a fighting chance?

It seems that there's the Asian inferiority complex in the business technology market, too. Adrian Burden, CEO of Singapore tech startup Singular ID, which won ZDNet Asia's Breakthrough award, says companies like his have to overcome what he calls the "invented here" syndrome, which means that locally grown ideas cannot possibly be as good as those from elsewhere.

What do you think? Does brand matter and do Asian businesses shun made-in-Asia tech products?