Small firms help HP take lead in Asia computer sales
Hewlett-Packard (HP) claims to have trumped its rivals and become Asia's leading personal computer supplier, thanks to resurgent demand from small businesses across the region.
Its breakaway growth was attributed to strong demand from the mainland, India and countries in Southeast Asia - all of which were expected to remain the principal drivers of PC sales for HP in the region over the next four years.
Adrian Koch, senior vice-president of the personal systems group in Asia-Pacific and Japan, said the company was determined to keep this lead, despite the challenge from Lenovo and global players Dell and IBM.
'For HP, the combined Asia-Pacific and Japan market is growing more than other regions in the world. And small and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs] are our fastest-growing segment,' Mr Koch said.
Citing figures from research firm International Data Corp (IDC), HP desktop and portable PC shipments in Asia-Pacific and Japan reached 1.052 million units from April to June this year.
That made HP Asia's No1 PC vendor for the second consecutive quarter, Mr Koch said.
But exclude Japan from those estimates and Lenovo retained its top vendor ranking in the Asia-Pacific region.
Not counting Japan, IDC said Lenovo had a 12.1 per cent market share in the second quarter, while HP took an 11.1 per cent share.
HP's renewed confidence in Asia comes more than two years after its merger with Compaq Computer and a sweeping revamp of its marketing strategy.
Mr Koch said HP sharpened its focus in the region last year and gained steadily on its rivals when it sold PCs directly to customers and through its traditional resellers.
With an eye on SMEs, HP launched PartnerONE - a sales-stimulus programme that was geared to foster closer ties with its distributors across Asia.
These included system integrators, independent software vendors, network services providers, value-added resellers and other dealers. HP last year also relaunched its consumer PC portfolio in the mainland, extending sales and marketing outside major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
The result was year-on-year sales growth of 93.8 per cent for HP personal system group in the mainland in the quarter to July this year.
'That quarter was our eighth straight profitable quarter,' Mr Koch said, referring to HP's personal system group results for Asia-Pacific and Japan. HP's total global revenue for the quarter to July was US$18.9 billion, up 9 per cent year on year. Mr Koch said HP expected demand from SMEs across Asia to continue to increase.
IDC forecast that information technology investments this year by SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, would hit US$29.7 billion. Purchases by mainland firms would account for about 31 per cent of that figure.
IDC Asia-Pacific senior analyst for SME research Lau Tong-yen said: 'Hardware will continue to be the mainstream expenditure item on SME purchase lists in the year.'
