HP targets millennials for gaming biz growth CREATING A TREND
Personal computer (PC) and printer maker HP looks to tap the increasing millennial population in India, to boost growth in the newly introduced gaming PC segment.
The American multinational has focused on the enterprise, government organisations and consumer segments so far.
Rajiv Srivastava, managing director, HP India, says the increasing demand for quality gaming devices among Indians within the age of 35 has prompted the company to fill this gap.
“Historically, games did not gain a foothold in India, due to the lack of access to gaming consoles and PCs, and low social acceptance of this entertainment medium. This is all changing now; the Indian games industry is on the cusp of a major transformation,” he said.
PCs and desktops under their gaming series called Omen are priced between nearly ~80,000 and ~140,000 for the Indian market; the 17-inch model will come with a Virtual Reality gaming option. The market for gaming PCs in India is pegged at ~3,000 crore a year and growing at nearly 15 per cent annually.
“We play across different segments of enterprise, governments, small & medium business, and consumer markets. We pretty much offer everything but we felt we had a gap in the gaming segment. No better time than this, as the Indian gaming market is maturing with a huge millennial population,” said Srivastava.
Information technology research entity Gartner, however, says there has been a decline in PC shipments across Managing Director, HP India | | Research firms say demand for gaming computers have picked up in India in the past two years With a 28.8% market share, HP aims to tap the increasing demand for gaming computers in India the world, including the Asia-Pacific and in India, since 2012. A Gartner report on January 12 also said growth should come from segments like gaming but it would take time to offset the decline in overall PC sales. Asia-Pacific PC market shipments of 24.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016 marked a 3.9 per cent drop as against the year-ago period. Demonetisation in India was one of two major reasons behind weaker-than-expected consumer | | The company believes Digital India initiative will result in increased use of PCs For HP, Make in India helps in ensuring a better customer experience fulfiling the demand cycle faster PC demand, said the report.
Srivastava says sales of HP, which has 28.8 per cent of the PC market in India, have not been affected by demonetisation, except for some delay in purchasing decisions in November (when demonetisation was announced). “Our view is demonetisation started digitisation in the country; it had a link with technology adoption. In our scheme of things, it has created a path for digitisation,” he said.