Inkjet Wholesale News aims to provide updates on the latest significant occurrences in the field of printing. Whether it’s the launch of a new technology or volatility of market prices, we’ll be here to give you the lowdown on what happened, when it happened, and what it means!
How Does HP Inc. Plan To Turn Around Declining Performance?
A lot has been said about the HP split in the last year or so. However, when a company as huge as HP decides to initiate a restructuring programme as massive as this one, you can’t help but notice all the little nuances. We’ve already covered various angles of the HP split news such as the reasoning behind it, downsizing efforts, and even long term speculation of what is going to happen to the two companies.
As important as those perspectives are, we believe that there’s something even more important i.e. what the future strategy will be of the companies. This question is especially pertinent when it comes to HP Inc. The main reason for this is that HP Inc. will be the company that will be responsible for the personal computers, printers, and printer consumables division of the erstwhile technology giant. For a long time now, this division has been on the decline. In fact, it is clear that the performance of this division has been below par simply because people have become less interested in buying personal computers, printers, and printer consumables these days.
While purchase of personal computers has started suffering because of the rising popularity of tablets and other mobile devices, printers have suffered because most businesses are moving towards the paperless office. Moreover, printing consumable sales have dropped considerably as well because people are opting to go with generic cartridges because they have started matching OEM consumables print quality.
On the other hand, the business hardware and consulting division of the erstwhile technology giant will go into the other company, HP Enterprise. Now, the business hardware and consulting division of the company has not only performed consistently but also shown improvement over the last few years. What all this means is that HP Inc. will be taking on the struggling division while the profitable division will go to HP Enterprise.
Essentially, the future strategy of HP Inc. is more important because they’ve taken up the tougher task. HP Inc. will have to innovate and really jump through the hoops to turn around their performance while HP Enterprise can simply continue doing what it has been doing to keep making profits. As a result, we’ll focus on HP Inc.’s future strategy as well.
There are mainly three baskets that HP Inc. has decided are worthy enough for its eggs. These three baskets are multifunction printers or copier machines used in small to medium scale businesses, the 3D printing industry, and the rising popularity and usage of Windows 10.
With regard to copier machines, HP Inc. hopes to increase its sales and capture a greater portion of the market for itself. However, this is one strategy that analysts seem to be highly sceptical about. The reason for this is simply the fact that the small to medium scale business copier machines or multifunction printers segment has been on a steady decline for some time now.
Businesses are now pushing the concept of paperless offices where every type of documentation is handled digitally. However, according to HP’s Enrique Lores, Head of the newly formed Printing Division, even though sales numbers of new printers have dropped, the usage is still going strong. How HP Inc. plans on increasing its sales in a declining market is yet to be seen thigh.
The second market that HP Inc. is planning on leveraging towards improving its performance is the 3D printers market. This is a relatively new and emerging market that is yet to realise its full potential so it makes sense for HP to target this market. At the same time, even though the 3D printing market is still developing, HP Inc. has no experience of the market and will be starting its foray from scratch. Even so, HP Inc. has an internal target of launching a commercial 3D printer by the end of next year. It is very much possible for HP Inc. to capture this market but it may need to acquire the required expertise through a takeover of another company.
HP is also looking forward to increased usage and popularity of Windows 10 operating system. The reason for this is that when a new operating system is launched, many people choose to buy new computers. It is this spurt in sales that HP Inc. seems to want to leverage. However, this little spurt in sales is usually spread across all the hardware manufacturers so HP Inc. will have to beat its competitors to truly benefit from it.
HP Takes Revenge against Memjet after Earlier Patent Infringement Case
Earlier, in August, we had reported how Memjet had sued HP. The lawsuit was based on patent infringement concerning eight of the patents held by Memjet. Memjet claimed that HP has infringed its patents concerning page wide “waterfall” printing technology.
Memjet’s patent infringement claim stated that HP was planning to use their technology in its PageWide printer products including Officejet Pro X models, T – Series commercial presses, and PageWide XL series models. Furthermore, the goal of the patent infringement case from Memjet was simply to get HP to stop using its technology and recover damages for the same.
However, the battle between Memjet and HP has now taken a new turn with HP countersuing Memjet over their intellectual property rights. The response from HP is fairly standard when it comes to answering patent infringement lawsuits so long as it is technically possible to do so. The two cases will now be handled side by side but both of them will have a bearing on each other in one way or another. An “early neutral evaluation” of the case is expected to be handled by a Magistrate Judge later in the month.
The case comes at a bad time for HP, as the technology giant has recently split into HP Enterprise and HP Inc. Moreover, HP had already announced the release of its PageWide colour 3D printer last year but this case has forced the company to postpone the launch of the product.
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