HP Australia rejects threat of customer exodus over PC business doubts

The South Pacific head of Hewlett Packard’s personal systems group (PSG) has played down reports that the company’s customers were distancing themselves following confusion over the future of the group.

As reported by CRN this morning, a number of US business customers said they were reassessing their relationship with HP.

Last month the company said it would spin-off its PSG business but then later appeared to backpedal as conflicting statements were made on either side of the Atlantic.

PSG South Pacific head Janice Cox said she was not aware that any of the company’s Australian customers were considering leaving HP. “We haven’t had any customers back away.”

Cox reiterated the company’s intention to sell off the business describing the challenge as “exciting not frustrating”.

She said that conversations with several of the company’s channel partners had revealed positive attitudes to the idea. “Feedback has been very positive.”

Cox added that many of the company’s channel partners in Australia had seen it all before and were accustomed to change in the PC industry from the merger of HP and Compaq to the more recent spinning off of IBM’s PC business into Lenovo and were unlikely to have any fears about HP spinning off PSG.

Calls to HP customers and channel partners were not returned by the time of publication.

HP describes itself as not only the world’s biggest PC marker, but also the most profitable. Cox said the company’s resellers enjoyed among the best margins in the industry.

Cox went on to say that HP remained focused on the development of personal computer products, revealing that next week it would launch in Australia a new line of workstations aimed at business customers.

“We have a high share of the workstation market,” Cox said. The company also enjoyed number one status in the notebook market where it markets a surprisingly high 24 separate platforms.

However, Cox declined to provide specific detail on the company’s plans for mobility products, especially in the light of last month’s dumping of its TouchPad and WebOS smartphone businesses.

She said WebOS was far from dead and would likely plan an important role in supporting future HP products.

As to whether she thought HP would likely heed the advice of Harvey Norman technology chief Ben McIntosh to reinstate the TouchPad after the frenzied reaction to last month’s fire sale of the product in Australia, Canada, Britain and the US, Cox said it was unlikely.

While acknowledging that the tablet was an important product in the computer market, she played down suggestions that it would come to be seen as a genuine replacement for notebooks.

"The tablet won't replace notebooks; that's the research I get."

HP would continue to invest more energy in emerging businesses such as PoS (point of sale) and digital signage, the latter area providing opportunities for resellers to engage in software development and increase margins.