KOMODO has announced their retail expansion with the Steam Deck OLED planned to be in stores across Asia starting December 12th. KOMODO are Valve's official partner of the Steam Deck and Docking Station across Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Sent out via a press release KOMODO confirmed the "Steam Deck OLED has been very well received". So starting December 12th the Steam Deck OLED will come to these stores, along with trial experiences at select locations:
Japan
・Bic Camera
【Sapporo / Ikebukuro Camera・PC-kan / Yurakucho】
・Edion
【Yokohama West Main Store / Kyoto Shijo Kawaramachi / Namba Main Store】
・Yodobashi
【Multimedia Sendai / Multimedia Akiba / Shinjuku West Main Store / Multimedia Umeda 】
・PC Koubou
【Aeon Town Hiraoka / Akihabara Iiyamastore / Goodwill Nagoya Oosu / Goodwill Chatan / Goodwill Naha】
・Sofmap
【AKIBA PC・Digital-Kan】South Korea
・Electro Mart
【Haeundae / Starfield Hanam / Yeonsu / Jayang / Wangsimni and other Electromart locations】Hong Kong
・PREDATOR Proshops
Taiwan
・Acer Store
【Acer Tainan Rainbow / Acer Guang hua Digital Plaza / Hsinchu NOVA / Taichung NOVA / Taoyuan NOVA / Zhongli NOVA】
That's on top of KOMODO also selling them online on their official site, where it has been repeatedly sold out. Currently still, the 512GB model is out of stock so demand is clearly there. All great news to get this Linux-powered device into more hands.
For example you can't just sell someone a computer part and make its warranty expire after 12months, is by law minimal 3-5yrs.
This is something few countries do.
Top that off with a smaller market. However I think the SD would sell well in AU/NZ.
Lastly Valve owns no storage houses here so can't distribute locally and doesn't seem keen on using rented space or dealing with AusPOST for example. Shipping direct from anywhere outside of AU or NZ would cost a fortune so it must be locally distributed.
In saying that I have no idea where the SD is produced, if in China they can ship direct from there to customers in AU/NZ and I think its relatively cheap, but I suspect they only get them made there, not packaged.
See more from me