HP tops Indian commercial PC market

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

NEW DELHI

Hewlett-Packard India (HP India) - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Company -- has emerged the number one commercial personal computer (PC) vendor (among branded players) in India in the first quarter of 2000 with a market share of 10.5 per cent.

According data released by International Data Corporation (IDC), HP India was the fastest-growing manufacturer with more than 142 per cent sales growth - over three times faster than the overall market expansion of 35 per cent.

HP India manufactures its Brio and Vectra ranges of commercial PCs and the HP pavilion home PC at their manufacturing plant in Bangalore. With its current capacity, the company churns out around 20,000 units every month and is planning to hike its capacity by the year end. The company has also expanded its support infrastructure to include 202 service centers in 48 cities across India. Besides, free telephone support is provided in the metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

''We have invested heavily in our infrastructure to provide our customers a great buying experience by giving them easy access to HP solutions that are priced right and readily available," said Ravi Aggarwal, vice-president, computer products at HP

India.

"Customers want to be served on their own terms today and the vendor who does it best will win the No.

1 position," he added.

According to the company brass, HP India's "focus on customising value delivery to match customer expectations and its substantial investment in the company's sales infrastructure has secured it the leadership position". In addition, strengthening its

manufacturing, supply chain and support infrastructure has contributed to its current position. The company also led the initiative in introducing new price points besides continually creating greater value within existing offers for PC customers.

"HP has pioneered the reduction of the price delta between MNC and local PC brands in India. The HP Brio PC is currently available for as less as Rs 33,900. Given our extensive range of commercial PCs (the Brio and Vectra PCs), we have been able to consistently and successfully address the computing needs of our business users across the entire power and price

spectrum," said Subin Joseph, market development manager at HP India.

HP India's plans for commercial PCs for the next one year include faster delivery of customer-configured computing solutions, expansion of their channel and support infrastructure in the country and increased investment in media spend. New product innovation is a continual emphasis.

HP India's commercial PCs are distributed by five distributors, six large systems integrators and more than 500 resellers across 48 cities in India. Distributors include Redington India Ltd., Tech Pacific, Ingram Micro, Thakral India and Iris. Besides these, the company says, it has been working closely with system integration partners such as HCL, CMC, Zenith and PCS.

In the worldwide market, Hewlett-Packard Co. showed the strongest growth in the first quarter of 2000 surging into the No. 3 spot in worldwide PC sales, according to a survey done by Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc. HP captured 8 per cent of the market among PC vendors.

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