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HPSM going for more market share in PDA market, NEW STRAITS

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

xfdws HPSM-GOING-FOR-MORE sked Emerging Markets Datafile

July 14, 2003

NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES

MALAYSIA

ENGLISH

HPSM going for more market share in PDA market, NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES

Anuja Ravendran

ASIA WorldSources, Inc. 322 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE 2ND FLOOR, NE WASHINGTON, DC 20002 COPYRIGHT 2003 BY WORLDSOURCES, INC., A JOINT VENTURE OF FDCH e-Media, INC. AND WORLD TIMES, INC. NO PORTION OF THE MATERIALS CONTAINED HEREIN MAY BE USED IN ANY MEDIA WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION TO WORLDSOURCES, INC.

HEWLETT-PACKARD Sales Malaysia is seeing a big opportunity in small handheld computers. The company, through its Personal Systems Group (PSG), is preparing to seize a much bigger share of the personal digital assistant (PDA) market with the launch of its new range of iPaq Pocket PCs.

Wong Chun Fong, the group's country manager, said the company hopes to achieve between 70 and 80 per cent growth this year in terms of unit sales, compared to 50 per cent growth recorded the previous year.

Wong said the release of affordable PDAs like the iPaq Pocket PC h1930 could further help boost sales because more people are purchasing these devices due to the lower prices.

''Since people are on the move a lot more these days, we believe that many will go for portable devices which offers them the convenience of working from anywhere,'' he said.

Furthermore, he added, the iPaqs are also fast becoming fashion products, which is a good market to be in.

HPSM will be banking on the design of the product as a way to attract customers, Wong said.

''For the low-end users, what they are more concerned with is keeping up with the trend by having a sexy, affordable machine which can carry out the basic functions. They can opt for the iPaq h1930 or iPaq h2210, which would suit their needs.''

Wong said for high-end users, the iPaqs will incorporate useful applications like Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity).

Overall, the new PDAs are expected to help HPSM in registering solid revenue growth this year.

''We have been hitting our targets and have seen some growth, especially in hot spots like the PDA market,'' Wong said during an off-site product launch in Pulau Tioman last week.

''Generally, the only way to grow in times like these is to `eat' other people's market share. So, we are bracing ourselves for a very small growth,'' he said.

At the event, HPSM unveiled a new range of the iPaq Pocket PC, including the h2210, h1930, h1940 and h5550 series.

Under the commercial desktop series, the HP Compaq Business Desktop d330 and d530 were introduced while the HP Compaq Business Notebook nc4000 and nx7000 were launched for the notebook segment.

The HP Pavilion t210d, t230d, t280d and the Compaq Presario Desktop S4160AP were launched for the home desktops segment.

The launch also saw the introduction of the HP xw4100 under the workstation category.

For deskjet colour inkjet printers, the new models-HP 5652, 3650 and 3550-were unveiled during the launch.

Copyright 2003 NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES all rights reserved as distributed by WorldSources, Inc.

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