HP Inc.: Market Share on the Rise  

Gurpreet Singh Brar
 Director, Commercial Channel Sales, Printing and Personal Systems, HP Inc. India

"We are leaders in the Print and PC segment market and we will continue to focus and continuously strive towards innovating our products in these segments in India" 
HP Inc. India has done extremely well in the last one year both in the PC and print segments with an average market share of 26.5 per cent and 46.5 per cent, respectively, thanks to a wide range of products and excellent after-market services  

Globally, notebook PCs, printing supplies, printing commercial hardware and desktop PCs each accounted for more than 10 per cent of HP Inc.'s consolidated net revenue, whereas in India it is difficult to predict revenue numbers with respect to product categories, but the company has done extremely well both in the PC and print categories.  

The year 2016 saw major focus on tapping new markets, new segments and new demographics. HP has grown its business in the commercial (SMB, mid-market, start-ups, large enterprises) and consumer segment. Driven by the partner programme, HP is planning to increase its global market share to 15 per cent from the current 5 per cent in this $55-billion industry. The entire back-end domain of customer outreach, partner skill enablement and our support coverage has really helped the company to see growth momentum over the past year. 

The company has gained a strong foothold in the premium PC category with the launch of Spectre and, now in 2017, HP is continuing to bring a whole new level of innovation by introducing Z32 mini and Omen portfolio in India.

In India, HP's focus is more on the PC and print segments, and the company has increased its market share in both the categories. Globally,   HP Inc. business is divided into three segments – Personal Systems, Printing and Corporate Investments. The Personal Systems segment offers commercial PCs, consumer PCs, workstations, thin clients, commercial tablets and mobility devices, retail point-of-sale (“PoS”) systems, displays and other related accessories. The printing segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, solutions and services, as well as scanning devices and corporate investments include HP Labs and certain business incubation projects. In India, the company caters to individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health and education sectors. 

"We are the leaders in the Print and PC segment market and we will continue to focus and continuously strive towards innovating our products in these segments in India," said Gurpreet Singh Brar, Director, Commercial Channel Sales, Printing and Personal Systems, HP Inc. India.  

HP's PC Market Share  
On the personal systems front, HP sells commercial PCs, consumer PCs, laptops, workstations, thin clients, commercial tablets and mobility devices, displays and other related accessories, software, support and services for the commercial and consumer markets. The PCs and commercial tablets and mobility devices are based predominately on Microsoft Windows operating systems and use processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Personal systems also maintain a multi-operating system, multi-architecture strategy using the Google Chrome and Android operating systems among others for notebooks and tablets. 

Commercial PCs are optimized for use by enterprises and SMB customers, with a focus on robust designs, security, serviceability, connectivity, reliability and manageability in networked environments. Commercial PCs include HP ProBook and HP EliteBook lines of notebooks and hybrids (detachable tablets), HP Pro and HP Elite lines of business desktops and all-in-ones, HP Thin Clients, HP ElitePad, HP Pro Tablet PCs and HP Chromebooks. 
Commercial PCs also include workstations that are designed and optimized for high-performance and demanding application environments, including Z desktop workstations, Z all-in-ones and Z mobile workstations, whereas Consumer PCs are notebooks, desktops and hybrids that are optimized for consumer usage, focussing on multimedia consumption, online browsing and light productivity and include HP Spectre, HP Envy, HP Pavilion, HP Chromebook, Omen by HP, hybrids and all-in-one desktops.

In the PC segment, the primary competitors for HP Inc. in India include Dell, Lenovo Group, Acer and others. HP's competitive advantages include broad product portfolio, extensive service and support offerings and the accessibility of our products through a broad-based distribution strategy from retail and commercial channels to direct sales.

The market growth in personal computing is low single digit, but HP Inc. has increased its market share faster than its competitors and there is a Q-o-Q sequential growth during the last four quarters from 23.9 per cent to 28.8 per cent. 

Speaking about the market share, Gurpreet Singh Brar, Director, Commercial Channel Sales, Printing and Personal Systems, HP Inc. India, said, "As per IDC report for Q3 2016, HP stands as the leading PC vendor with a market share of 28.8 per cent. Additionally, according to industry sources, HP India's market pie in the fourth quarter surged to 31.4 per cent. Also, HP has been India’s most-trusted personal computing brand, according to the Brand Trust Report for the last three years." 

HP's Print Market Share 
Printing provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, solutions and services, as well as scanning devices. Printing is also focussed on imaging solutions in the commercial markets. HP groups LaserJet, Graphics and PageWide printers into Commercial Hardware and Consumer and Inkjet printers into Consumer Hardware when describing performance. 

LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions delivers LaserJet printers, supplies and solutions to SMBs and large enterprises. Ongoing key initiatives include design and deployment of A3 products and solutions for the copier and multifunction printer market, printer security solutions, PageWide Enterprise solutions and JetIntelligence products.

Inkjet and Printing Solutions delivers consumer, SMB and PageWide Inkjet solutions (hardware, supplies, media, and web-connected hardware and services). Graphics Solutions delivers large format printers (DesignJet, Large Format Production and Scitex Industrial), speciality printing, digital press solutions (Indigo and PageWide Presses), supplies and services to print service providers and design and rendering customers.

Print Solutions provides end-to-end services, as well as core platforms to develop and deploy services across printing systems. HP’s focus includes driving customer value through managed print services and providing support solutions for new and existing customers, whereas 3D Printing delivers HP’s Multi-Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution designed for prototyping and production of functional parts and functioning on an open platform facilitating the development of new 3D printing materials. 

In the printing segment, the primary competitors include Canon, Epson, Samsung and Brother. In addition, independent suppliers offer refill and remanufactured alternatives for HP original inkjet and toner supplies, which are often available for lower prices, but generally offer lower print quality and reliability. 
"HP India has led the printer segment for close-to 25 years. The market share for print, according to the IDC report for Q2, 2016, was 47 per cent. In print, we have maintained our leadership at 50 per cent, whereas in inkjet we are at 70 per cent," says Gurpreet Singh Brar. 
“In the printer segment, the overall market has not grown, but HP has grown,” commented Gurpreet Singh Brar.  
In terms of trends, the printer market has seen some shift from cartridge to ink tanks and the company has also gained market share in the CISS (Continuous Ink Supply System) category. The company has also introduced A3 printers in the Indian market and presently has less than 5-per cent market share. 
On the printer front, the line between consumer and commercial is blurring, product differentiation is also blurring and product designs are also changing the market. The company is planning to launch a full range of A3 printers in the market by May-to-June timeframe. 

Large Government Deals
HP offers the best-in-class commercial print and personal computing devices which have been introduced precisely to meet the evolving needs of the customers. HP has started engaging with various central government departments and state governments to work on projects of Digital India. HP had won a project in Bihar for converting 50 million revenue departments papers into digital format in 18 months’ timeframe. The company has also bagged 145,000-laptop deal for meritorious students in Q3, 2016 from the Government of Uttar Pradesh.   

“We have also been successful in enabling digital inclusion of 1.5 million students through a UP Government deal and have set the record of having the world’s largest IT contract for education,” said Gurpreet Singh Brar. 

HP has seen tremendous increase in sales post PDS (public distribution system) digitization. We have set up a very strong separate Digital India business unit that is based on developing digital solution in the country. In this regard, HP has been continuously working with the Government at a solution level which also includes multiple state governments.

HP has also built its first centre of excellence in alignment with the Government's Digital India initiative, to offer solutions that solve real-life problems with technological innovations. Developed in collaboration with over 25 system integrators, including leading IT software companies, the CoE will be used as a platform to exhibit solutions relevant to government and businesses. It will allow government and non-government stakeholders to have a practical understanding of the solutions, making it easier for decision-makers to take a step forward towards comprehensive digitization of the nation.
Speaking about HP print and PC opportunity in the Indian market, Gurpreet Singh Brar said, "The penetration of PCs is 9 per cent, whereas India's GDP is at 7 per cent so the industry has to catch up. There is a big opportunity in Digital India trying to offer services, thereby improving efficiency of the government. The market is also bullish on opportunities due to GST (Goods and Services Tax). Around 25–30 million small-time organizations will join GST bandwagon and this will lead to complete digitization." 

HP's Channel Partner Spread   
In terms of channel partners, HP Inc. sells products, directly or indirectly, through a variety of channel partners such as retailers that sell our products to the public through their own physical or Internet stores; resellers that sell products and services, frequently with their own value-added products or services, to targeted customer groups; distribution partners that supply HP solutions to resellers; and system integrators and other advisory firms that provide IT consulting and systems integration work. 

Talking about the number of partners in India, Gurpreet Singh Brar, Director, Commercial Channel Sales, Printing and Personal System, HP Inc. India, said, "We have 500 exclusive HP World Stores across India in 220 cities and more than 3,700 partners across India in 300 cities." 

In terms of after-sales support, HP's network spans across 376 service points in 159 cities. Onsite customer support is available in more than 1,800 cities. The service backup is best in the industry, as the company has also launched the HP Smart Care Concept, an automated system to diagnose system remotely. In April-May, HP plans to open HP Smart Care Concept for the entire range of products. 

For improving services, the first time fix is a key thrust area. The first time fix has already helped HP to increase its market share. In metros, the focus is on resolution for the next business day which has also helped the company in the long run to increase its customer support which is good from the customer’s point of view.  

HP has helped more channel partners capture mid-market opportunities and HP pMPS has offered high level of service to SMBs, delivered directly by HP.
"In 2016, HP Inc. launched Managed Print Services for large enterprises, whereas for small- and mid-market the focus was on Partner Managed Services. The company also launched Device-as-a-Service for the enterprise market," commented Gurpreet Singh.  

The company is working on a two-pronged strategy – incentivising high-end portfolios and certification for partners. The two-pronged strategy will definitely be a win-win for both HP and its partners. 

Pravin Prashant
pravin@varindia.com