Connectivity Boom Speeds PC ‘Refresh Cycle’ Amid Shortages, Says HP GM
Work from home, remote learning and telemedicine are PCs' “core growth demand drivers” during the pandemic, Kevin Frost, general manager of HP’s consumer business, told a Deutsche Bank virtual conference Monday. “We see them absolutely extending” into 2021, he said…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
of demand. HP estimates an installed base of 700 million PCs globally older than four years, said Frost. “This new world that we live in now” is speeding the “refresh cycle” of the devices because people “are needing to do things that are just harder to do” on older machines, whether it's holding Zoom meetings, streaming video or gaming, he said. It’s a myth that consumer PC demand is shifting toward the low end during pandemic buying, said Frost. Shifting consumers toward mobile gaming is “the single biggest thing we're doing,” he said. The supply constraints in laptop CPUs and display panels is “industry-wide,” said Frost. “We didn't expect demand to be this strong.” The supply shortage “is really a demand issue,” he said. CPUs and panels are “long-lead-time components,” he said. HP is experiencing “spot shortages” on processors and panels “across the board,” he said. The shortages are “broad, but I'm confident we're improving every day,” he said.