Dive Brief:
-
Business is good at HP Inc. 15 months after the company split from parent company Hewlett Packard, according to George Brasher, HP Inc's managing director for the U.K. and Ireland and a 26-year HP veteran. According to HP's Q1 2017 financial results, personal systems revenue was up 10% year over year and notebook sales jumped 12% from a year ago.
-
"What we wanted to get out of it was: could we be more focused on our markets; could we actually accelerate our pace of innovation and get closer to our customers? In general, I'd say the answer is a resounding 'yes,’" Brasher said in an interview with ZDNet.
-
Hewlett Packard split into two companies in November 2015 – HP Inc., focused on printer and personal systems, and HP Enterprise (HPE), focused on businesses.
Dive Insight:
The original vision behind the split set out by HPE CEO Meg Whitman was to help the two divisions better focus on their own businesses, and Brasher said he believes that has happened, at least for his half of the company.
The split has not gone as well for HPE, however, where Q1 revenues were down 10% and the company cut its full-year profit forecast last month.
HP Inc.’s success comes as a bit of a surprise, as its competitors have struggled with hardware sales and weaker consumer demand for technology overall. But the company is trying to appeal to market changes and the shift away from traditional personal computing. Recently at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, HP debuted a 'sexy' 2-in-1 detachable meant to keep up with employees who are not always desk bound.
