HP’s PC Revenues Were Flat in Previous Quarter

HP performed well overall in the previous quarter, but PC revenues were flat despite exploding premium notebook PC and Chromebook sales.

HP reported net income of $700 million on revenues of $15.3 million for the quarter ending October 31, the firm’s fiscal fourth quarter. For fiscal 2020, HP reported net income of $2.8 billion on revenues of $56.6 billion. Revenues fell year-over-year for both the fiscal quarter and year, by 1.1 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.

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“We closed out a strong quarter with a beat on the top and bottom line,” HP president and CEO Enrique Lores said in a prepared statement. “We had record unit shipments in the quarter, reflecting the important role HP technology is playing in the lives of our customers. Our results give us great confidence in our ability to drive long-term growth and shareholder value in 2021 and beyond.”

As for the PC, HP’s Personal Systems delivered $10.4 billion in revenues, even with the year-ago quarter. Total units sold rose 7 percent, with notebooks up 25 percent and desktops down 31 percent. Notebooks accounted for $7.4 billion of the business unit’s revenues.

Lores also said that consumer premium PC demand rose dramatically—by 29 percent—in the quarter when compared to the previous year. And revenues and unit sales of Chromebooks both doubled in the quarter YOY.

HP’s other big business is Printing, which saw revenues of $4.8 billion, down 3 percent YOY. Total units sold rose by 14 percent with consumer printer sales up 14 percent and commercial sales down 10 percent.

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Conversation 11 comments

  • sammyg

    25 November, 2020 - 4:04 pm

    <p>I do wonder how the M1 based Mac's will impact things going forward. The M1 Macbook Air seems like it is perfect for a college student needing a laptop.</p>

    • Jorge Garcia

      25 November, 2020 - 7:48 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#595660">In reply to sammyg:</a></em></blockquote><p>Get ready for an all out assault from Apple on the hearts and minds of every last person under 30. They have now made computers that are not only no longer rip-offs, they are now the value-leaders in several key ways. They will pound this message home like you wouldn't believe and in a few years, everything non-apple will be viewed (incorrectly, but correctly) as "the junk you buy if you can't afford Apple". If MS and the OEMS are serious, they need to, as a CONSORTIUM, embrace Android and make some kind of offering that can compete with iOS/iPadOS/MacOS in the eyes of the average consumer. Right now all they see is a jumbled mess. Me personally, I don't mind that jumbled mess too much. It represents computing liberty to me and there are work-arounds to almost everything that can be considered a "flaw"…but your average consumer and millennial is not at all interested in using under-integrated things and discovering "clever" workarounds, trust me.</p>

      • Greg Green

        06 December, 2020 - 9:59 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#595677">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>You have quite a phobia with apple. MS is getting to the point where they don’t care much about windows anymore, it is what it is. MS makes more money from cloud services and business software and services, they seem willing to let windows atrophy. But it will contour to exist. Just not on ARM.</p>

        • Jorge Garcia

          08 December, 2020 - 8:16 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#598092">In reply to Greg Green:</a></em></blockquote><p>I am a fan of computers which by default makes me an enemy of Apple. They produce crippled appliances that do work very well (for the basic consumer), but are never truly yours. I am not looking forward to the day when Apple is so far ahead that it looks foolish for someone to use any other device. The M1 has made that day TODAY for a (significant) segment of the computing word, so yeah it's a phobia.</p>

  • Jorge Garcia

    25 November, 2020 - 7:41 pm

    <p>I really don't understand why HP and Dell don't just emulate Samsung and make a decent Android-running tablet/laptop thing that has a REAL keyboard and switchable "DeX" interface (a-la the absurdly expensive Tab S7 that no one will buy for their nephew or aunt). Being college educated and living in a major metropolis, I know that I am NOT crazy when I say that these companies, by focusing on too-wonky Chromebooks and Windows PCs (that no one under 25 or over 60 wants to look twice at), are continually NEGLECTING a huge swath of potential computer users, and now they are going to lose even more folks to Apple! THERE NEEDS TO BE A CONSORTIUM APPROACH ON THE WINDOWS OEM SIDE if they plan on stopping the Apple train which has just built up a mountain of steam.</p>

    • Craig Smith

      01 December, 2020 - 9:11 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#595676">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>There are a lot of subjective assumptions underlying your arguments, and your other comments here. My son is under 25 and has a Windows gaming PC that he also uses for senior school, and an Android phone. No Apple. His friends have a mix of Windows and Apple. iPads are certainly dominant, but mainly because Android alternatives are lacking. As for the over 60s, I'd be interested in how you came to *that* conclusion. I know many over 60s using PCs for both work and home. I'm not far off that myself, and I use a PC desktop, a HP laptop, and a Surface Pro. I can't see myself suddenly changing to Apple when I turn 60.</p><p><br></p><p>You need to be careful making definitive statements like: "Windows PCs that no one under 25 or over 60 wants to look twice at". Easily disproven, and undermines some of your valid points.</p>

      • Jorge Garcia

        08 December, 2020 - 8:19 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#597075">In reply to craig_smith:</a></em></blockquote><p>I apologize I do use a lot of semi-abrasive hyperbole and uncalled for assumptions, but I'm speaking to what I see day to day. I'm a University-educated Navy Veteran, who now lives in a very large Metropolis. I know a large swath of diverse people and while that doesn't mean I should make those blanket statements, they're based on the habits of the very "normal" people I see. I've seen many people in the plus-60 age range ditch their windows PC the second smartphones came out, and when it came time for a bigger screen, an iPad it was.</p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          09 December, 2020 - 9:46 am

          We all succumb to the allure of anecdotal data, but ultimately that’s all it is.

  • Jorge Garcia

    26 November, 2020 - 8:44 pm

    <blockquote><em><a href="#595719">In reply to ejuly:</a></em></blockquote><p>You're a person over 60 who also reads Thurott.com, so I'd suspect that both you and I are subsets of subsets. I'm not holding anybody back – I want them to get them to stop squinting at their 5" phones and I want them to NOT HAVE TO consider going into Apple's walled garden of no return to do it. The fact that they've completely written off Windows,and no equivalent to iPadOs exists on Android, are things I can do nothing about!</p>

  • Jorge Garcia

    30 November, 2020 - 10:07 pm

    <blockquote><em><a href="#596475">In reply to Jeffsters:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes, you are making the exact same point I am making. The more "appliance like" computing becomes, the less reason there will be for any "average" (Western) consumer to buy anything BUT Apple, especially now the that even the prices of Apple products are not THAT distant from their clunky Windows and Android counterparts (which I personally love but know that I am the exception not the rule). I am pointing out that Microsoft should be very worried about what Apple is doing, and double their efforts to make computers that are more appliance like, which in my mind means embracing android somehow and relegating "full boat" Windows to the domain of the corporate world, and maybe not even then in many cases.</p>

    • Greg Green

      06 December, 2020 - 9:55 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#596885">In reply to JG1170:</a></em></blockquote><p>MS has prepared for that with services and business software. Though they’re all nearly equal, cloud brings more revenue than business software, which brings more revenue than windows.</p><p><br></p><p>The real danger is for intel. If Mac Mx laptops are as good as initial indications, people may opt for MacBooks that operate faster and longer than intel laptops. And laptops make up about 80% of pc scales, according to PCWorld.</p>

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