HP India supply chain can tide over chip shortage: MD Ipsita Dasgupta
HP India says its domestic and global supply chains remain flexible enough to manage the ongoing memory chip shortage despite rising costs
 "HP India supply chain can tide over chip shortage: MD Ipsita Dasgupta")
HP India’s domestic and international supply chains have built enough flexibility and resilience over the years to tide over the current memory chip supply shortage, despite the unprecedented situation that has led to escalating costs, the company’s managing director and senior vice-president for India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh markets, Ipsita Dasgupta, said.
The company has also been asking its customers to place purchase orders as soon as they know their demand requirements to avoid rising device costs due to the shortage of memory chips, Dasgupta said in an exclusive interaction following the launch of HP’s Omnipad.
The Omnipad marks HP India’s entry into the tablet segment and is catered to a mobile-first user who is very comfortable with touchscreens but is also looking to transition to productivity devices such as laptops and high-end personal computers (PCs), she said.
“Our focus is to play a meaningful role by enabling access to technology that supports everyday progress and opportunity. With this launch, we are bringing together a more connected experience across PCs, printers, and HP solutions,” Dasgupta said.
PC and laptop penetration in India is still in the low-20 per cent range compared to some of the more developed economies, where the market is nearly saturated with 90 per cent penetration of these productivity devices, Dasgupta said.
Though the market for artificial intelligence (AI)-powered PCs has not taken off in the last few years, Dasgupta believes that eventually all personal computers will have to pivot to becoming AI PCs as users continue to demand more computing power from their devices.
“India’s need for hybrid solutions, especially AI on the edge, is going to be very important because we cannot afford the centralised data centre setup because of the costs and the heavy tax that it creates on the environment. It is a space we are doing a lot of work in,” Dasgupta said.