HP reported better-than-expected earnings today. But the firm’s CEO issued a warning on PC sales.
For the quarter ending July 31, HP posted net earnings of $880 million on revenues of $14.59 billion, both of which were strong improvements over the same quarter a year ago. And HP’s PC business is still by far its biggest, generation 9.4 billion in revenues in the quarter.
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Despite this, HP—the world’s biggest maker of PCs—feels that the PC market is soft.
“We sort of still predict declining units in traditional PCs, with flattish revenue, so our [average selling prices] are growing,” HP CEO Dion Weisler told CNBC.
Worse, he also indicated that the Windows 10 sales spike would not be as strong as was the case for Windows 7, another indication that the PC market will continue to contract after several years of decline.
“I would say this Windows 7 sunset and migration to Windows 10 is providing some stimulus to the market, but it’s not quite as spiky as previous operating system transitions,” he said.
The warnings haven’t sat well with Wall Street: Investors drove HP stock down 1.5 percent in after-hours trading today.
But HP still feels that it can win in a declining market. Weisler told CNBC that “three out of four people don’t have an HP logo sitting in front of them” [on their PCs] and that HP still has “innovation to amaze them.”
skane2600
<p>“I would say this Windows 7 sunset and migration to Windows 10 is providing some stimulus to the market, but it’s not quite as spiky as previous operating system transitions,”</p><p><br></p><p>This is why keeping the name "Windows 10" forever is a bad marketing strategy. Updates, even with names, are unlikely to create any stimulus.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#303938">In reply to cybersaurusrex:</a></em></blockquote><p>Calling it a "service" is even worse than calling it "Windows 10" forever. </p>
innitrichie
<p>The future of portable computing is surface phone.</p>
skane2600
<p>Standard comments aren't loading. Tried on Chrome and Firefox.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><em><a href="#304258">In reply to cybersaurusrex:</a></em></blockquote><p>So except for the "living room" computer activity that is by far the most popular (i.e. games), Apple is better than Xbox. Xbox's real competition is the PS4, Apple TV isn't a serious competitor.</p>