HP Amplify: HP Weathering the Storm, Says CEO

HP AMPLIFY 2024 — HP is starting to win back market share, despite tough conditions. That's the message from HP president and CEO Enrique Lores.

Addressing partners at the vendor’s HP Amplify event in Las Vegas Wednesday, Lores also confirmed the company’s commitment to the channel.

At the same event last year, Lores acknowledged a “tough market,” which includes shrinking demand for PCs.

“I said that we needed to be optimistic. We expected 2023 to be a tough year and it was a tough year,” he said on stage. "We needed to play to win … it was time to go on the offensive and start winning back in the market. And we have done a very good job during the last four consecutive quarters. We have grown our share in the PC space. And we have done that working with all of you, so again, thank you for the progress we have made,” he told partners.

The worldwide PC market ended its streak of annual shipment declines in the last quarter of 2023, posting a modest year-on-year growth of 3%. HP recorded 6% year-on-year growth in PC shipments in the fourth quarter, according to research firm Canalys (Canalys and Channel Futures are both owned by Informa.) Its overall annual shipments for 2023 amounted to 52.9 million units, a marginal 4% decrease from 2022.

Related:HP Amplify: HP Committed to Winning Back Partner Trust

HP Amplify: AI, Subscriptions Dominate

Predictably, AI has dominated the conversation at HP Amplify. Canalys expects one in five PCs it ships this year to be AI-capable. HP will bank on AI PCs to reinvigorate business.

But in terms of growth segments, HP will specifically target public sector and SMBs. It will also move further into subscriptions and services, said HP chief commercial officer, Dave McQuarrie.

“This subscription economy is booming,” he said. “Today HP has over 2000 partners who are offering HP managed services. We are building that set of offerings out across the full portfolio. So whether it’s across the [personal systems] or the print business − but increasingly headsets cameras, peripherals − as well as our software and services offerings. So you should expect to see us continue to move into … providing an ability to generate a recurring revenue stream with customers, which as we all know, generally is more profitable, but more importantly, is sticky.”

Managed Collaboration Services

Later this year HP will launch Managed Collaboration Services. This will be a "conference room as a service" subscription for managing operating and optimizing meeting rooms.

“This is going to create a telemetry goldmine,” said McQuarrie. “It’s going to create the ability to manage and understand experiences of our users and our employees in a way that can be enabled today. And again, is a massive recurring revenue, opportunity for us together.”

More than 85% of HP’s revenue comes from the channel — worth $43 billion. Lores reiterated that HP “has been and will be a channel-oriented company.”

“This has not changed," he said. "Other companies go to the channel, leave the channel. We have stayed committed to our business model, stayed committed to our relationship for many, many years. And this is how we plan to stay in the future."