HP Middle East best performer globally

DUBAI HP Middle East has emerged as the best performer for the company globally in terms of revenue growth for the first fiscal quarter ended January 31.

By Utpal Bhattacharya

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Published: Fri 28 Feb 2003, 4:47 AM

Last updated: Wed 1 Apr 2015, 8:24 PM

Christoph Schell, general manager, personal systems group of HP Middle East, said that in an internal communication of the company, Carly Fiorina, chairman and chief executive officer of HP, has noted that the Middle East has achieved the highest growth within HP's best performing region of Europe, Middle and Asia for the quarter.

Though HP's revenues declined seven per cent over the previous quarter in the Americas because of weakness in commercial spending in the US, revenues from HP's Europe, Middle East and Africa region operations rose some six per cent over the previous quarter.

Schell, who was speaking to this newspaper on the side of the company's launch of its new iPAQ Pocket PC h5400 Series on Wednesday, said that the recognition of the Middle East region as the best performer for the quarter was a shot in arms of the team in the region. He said that growth in the Middle East was driven mainly by the printing and the personal systems business apart from consulting.

He also pointed out that the PC business in the Middle East region was looking solid and margins were also rising. He said this year the PC business alone in the region will have a growth of nine to 11 per cent and HP with its 80,000 unit assembly plant, which is coming up in Saudi Arabia, will be able to enhance its market share.

"Our Saudi Arabian assembly plant will help us to penetrate that segment of the Middle East market, which we are unable to reach now because of our pricing as most of our PCs come from Europe. But once the Saudi Arabian plants is commissioned in the next couple of months, we will be able to service the regional market from within the region and also position the products accordingly," he said.

HP would be able to position its PCs assembled in Saudi Arabia at a price that could be 10 to 25 per cent lower than its European imports depending on the deals, added Schell.

Earlier launching the iPAQ Pocket PC h5400 Series, Vishnu Taimni, product manager for personal systems group of HP Middle East, described the product as the first device to integrate wireless LAN, biometric fingerprint authentication, Bluetooth technology and universal remote control in a single device. He said that the device offers the highest level of security, functionality and expandability for the enterprise and professional users.

The fingerprint registration process to operate the device is simple and seamless and authenticates the owner's unique fingerprint allowing access with a simple fingerprint swipe, he added.

The product is already available in the Middle East and is priced at Dh2,499 per unit.


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