HP EYES LOW-COST PCS TO HELP GAIN
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Hewlett-Packard Co on Wednesday said it was focusing on increasing market share in
HP is a latecomer to netbooks — stripped down notebooks optimised for the Internet — which it began to sell only last year after the global netbook market began to soar, even as the overall PC market remained flat or shrank.
But the low prices have also contributed to declining profit margins for the PC makers that are leading the charge into netbooks, such as Taiwan’s Acer Inc.
“We want to focus on our strategy to get more (market) share,” See Chin Teik, a senior vice-president for HP Asia Pacific & Japan, said at the new product launch.
HP noted that it would not chase market share at any cost and was mindful of the risk in the low-cost strategy.
“We are worried the end user will buy the product for the wrong reason,” said See, referring to the replacement effect.
HP hopes its new mini notebook computers — which carry recommended retail prices as low as $299 — will expand the overall computer market to include people who are not in the market for a full-priced laptop.
“We see it as a secondary device, not a replacement device,” said See.
Global PC makers are all struggling as households and businesses cut back on computer purchases to save cash, leading them to explore new revenue sources such as netbooks and smartphones.
“It is always a worry to make money in the PC market,” he said.
Earlier this month, HP gave a disappointing outlook for its full-year revenue and said it would lay off another 6,400 workers as consumers and businesses cut spending on computers, printers and services.
The new round of layoffs are on top of previously announced cuts from integrating the operations of IT services company EDS, which HP acquired last year.
PC SHIPMENTS DROP 19 PERCENT IN JAN-MAR QUARTER THIS YEAR
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Hit by the economic slowdown and low spending by the government on the information technology sector prior to the assembly elections, the personal computer (PC) shipments in the country fell by 19 percent during the January-March quarter this year.
IT research firm IDC said that the total PC shipment during the first quarter of 2009 was 1,679 compared to 2,072 units in the same period last year.
This however, represents a marginal increase over the previous quarter, when the PC shipments registered a decline of over 22 percent.
In the October-December quarter of 2008, the country had registered a 22.7 percent dip in the YOY growth of PC shipments.
However, aided by demand from education and banking sectors the PC market witnessed a 7 percent growth in shipments over the October-December quarter of 2008.
"Though the Year-on-Year (YoY) growth rate of India Client PC shipments dropped 19 percent, this was an improvement over the previous quarter, indicating the market has perhaps already bottomed out," IDC India Lead Analyst, Computing Products Research Sumanta Mukherjee said.
In spite of the overall subdued market, the total installed base of PCs in
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