HP plans divergent India, China strategies

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has chalked out aggressive plans for Asia Pacific with major thrust on emerging markets such as India and China. The company will bank upon different strategies for these two countries.

In India, HP will continue to ride on its highly successful dual brand strategy and look to address the entry-level segment, while for China the focus will be on aggressive geographical expansion to tier II cities, said See Chin Teik, vice-president, consumer desktops and mobile products, Asia Pacific, Personal Systems Group.

"Our plans for India also include the launch of entry-level Compaq Presario PC with unique chassis and aggressive geographic expansion with retail expansion," Chin Teik added.

As per IDC India Quarterly PC Market Tracker report, for the quarter ended July 31, HP has retained its top slot with a sequential rise of 19 per cent and a y-o-y 45 per cent growth in the overall client PC market in the country.

Apart from the PC market, company executives remained confident that its newly unveiled inkjet printers, based on the scalable printing technology platform, will see large takers in Asia-Pacific among home users, medium-sized businesses and high-volume printers.

"As per our expansion plans, H-P will bring its digital entertainment solution- the Pavilion Media Centre PC, to the entire region, with focus on markets such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand by October 2005," said Chin Teik.

The company is buoyed by the fact that strong sales from the Asia-Pacific and Japan region has resulted in the US giant post a healthy 10 per cent growth to $20.8 billion worldwide for the fiscal ended July 31.

The company's Asia-Pacific sales registered the highest growth of 15 per cent and it crossed the $3.5 billion-mark in revenues.

In yet another strategic move, the company is using its Asian R&D centres, including the one in Bangalore, to drive its research and innovation. For instance, the R&D work for its latest range of printers, which were the result of a five-year $1.4 billion investment, were predominantly from its Asian bases and coordinated by the Singapore centre.

"We rely on our Asian centres for local market research and product development as cost sensitivity is best addressed in Asia," Christopher Morgan, Senior V-P, imaging and printing, H-P Asia.