Alex CHO, President Of HP Global Personal Information Systems: Optimistic About The Future Of PC Market

After 10 years, the global PC market has ushered in a big explosion in 2020.

According to the preliminary results of the global quarterly personal computing device tracking report of IDC, in 2020, the global PC market will ship more than 300 million units, with a year-on-year growth of 13.1%, a new high in recent years. According to canalys, an authoritative IT industry analysis company, the annual PC market shipment will increase by 11% to 297 million units in 2020, with notebook computers accounting for a record 79% of the total market.

At the same time that institutions have disclosed the global PC market data, CES International Consumer Electronics Show will move from traditional Las Vegas to online in 2021, becoming the first full-scale exhibition since CES was founded more than 50 years ago. Recently, in an exclusive interview with 21st century business reporter, Alex CHO, President of HP's global personal information system business, said that this was the biggest trend he had observed on CES this year.

"In other words, everything will be virtual interconnected in the future, which also inspires us to innovate our products." Alex Cho pointed out that at present, PC has become an indispensable part of family and life. The era is changing from one PC per family to one or even more pcs per person. "I am very optimistic about the future growth of PC market."

On the one hand, there is rapid growth, but on the other hand, the PC market with strong demand is also full of worries. Due to the strong demand and shortage of production capacity, the production potential of each part of the supply chain has reached the limit. PC manufacturers have to face a series of problems such as capacity shortage, and rush to run with time has become a common challenge for enterprises. Alex Cho admits that the supply chain challenge is an industry wide issue, but HP has its own moves.

Future market of PC

21st century: CES has just come to an end in 2021. According to your observation, what are the technology trends on CES this year?

Alex Cho: CES this year is online and virtual, and that's the biggest trend. In other words, everything is virtual and interconnected, which also inspires us to innovate our products. Today's world is unprecedented, and we spend more time on innovation not only on product level but also on experience level. Bill Gates once said in the 1980s that his dream was to have a PC in each family. Now what we see is that everyone will have at least one PC.

"21st century": we also pay attention to some institutional data, showing that the global PC market will usher in a big explosion in 2020, and the year-on-year growth of shipment volume has reached a new high in nearly a decade. How do you predict the development and change of PC market in 2021? Can the high growth rate be sustained?

Alex Cho: I share some personal views. I am very optimistic about the future growth of the PC market, both in 2021 and in the medium and long term. The reason is that both the working environment and the learning environment are mixed online and offline. In the future, remote and offline will be deeply integrated.

Therefore, I think the next opportunity for the PC market is not only the situation of one machine for each person, but also a better PC for each person, because users not only need to use the cable online and offline, but also need to carry out remote conference, remote learning and remote creation with higher quality. These will certainly promote the industry to grow better. We need to improve not only the quantity, but also the quality.

We hope to be able to help users not only have a PC, but also to carry out the work at hand with higher quality and efficiency. Next, PC is crucial for direct interaction between users in industries such as work, study, games, health care, etc., which is why I am confident in the development of PC in 2021 and beyond.

21st century: while the demand is strong, PC manufacturers are facing different degrees of supply chain challenges. What about HP? How to deal with it?

Alex Cho: because last year's massive demand growth was very sudden, the supply chain challenge affected the entire industry and even the entire ecosystem. Since all members of the industry are affected, HP, as a very important leader in the industry, will naturally be affected accordingly.

What have we done? First of all, we have maintained very close cooperation and communication with our suppliers, and we have maintained very close communication at all times. In addition, we also maintain very close cooperation and communication with channel sales and distribution partners. In addition, we have also done a very critical point, that is, in-depth study of customer needs, whether it is their short-term or medium-term needs, to create innovative products for these needs.

Industry competition stimulates innovation

21st century: under the background of high growth market, many enterprises compete for users with innovative products. In China, in addition to traditional PC manufacturers, there are also backward players such as Huawei and Xiaomi. What does HP think of these new players? What changes will happen to PC market competition in the future?

Alex Cho: any form of competition with content, any form of innovation, and any action to create vitality for the industry are all good things, because it can stimulate the whole industry to become more competitive and innovative, and bring solutions to the majority of consumers at a faster speed. These are good things.

From HP's point of view, we have never simply regarded PC as a PC business, but have observed a wider range of uses. We regard PC as personal systems, which means personal information system. Having more players involved in innovation can motivate us to continue to listen to customers and better contact them, especially focusing on the unique needs of local customers, including the needs of large companies' business customers, education needs and personal creators.

We build a better service and experience for them based on this. PC is not the most important, experience is the most important. We have always believed that the so-called CES is called "consumer electronics show". In fact, "e" can refer to not only electronics, but also experience. The "consumer experience Exhibition" can better clarify the essence of CES.

21st century: HP announced a number of new products on CES this year. Around the technology trend of PC market this year, how does HP innovate?

Alex Cho: in terms of crowd Oriented Innovation, we mainly have four parts: first, innovation for enterprise employees to help employees achieve better work efficiency in a mixed environment; second, innovation for small and medium-sized enterprises, which have a series of unique needs; third, for a large number of IT managers and operators in the enterprise, who could work offline in the past, Now they have to move online; the fourth category is creative workers, who also have their own unique needs.

The 21st century: can you explain it in detail?

Alex Cho: we focus on product innovation for employees of general enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises and ordinary consumers. For example, for employees who need a mixed online and offline working environment, this year we launched the EliteBook 840. This kind of hybrid office workers often need to carry their computers with them, so we have greatly reduced the weight of the computers. At the same time, this computer has a strong artificial intelligence noise reduction function, which can still help users to work quietly in noisy external environment. In addition, this computer has strong security features, with good security protection. Fourth, the computer is also equipped with 5g module, which can help employees connect with the outside world more quickly by using 5g network.

In the face of end-users such as creative workers, we have launched a notebook computer named envy 14, nicknamed creative studio, which can create a brand-new creative studio. Its screen is bigger and higher, and artists who create online can see more. At the same time, artists can see more real and original colors in the process of product creation, so as to ensure the quality of innovation. The design of this product is very cool and can be used in multiple scenes. At the same time, we know that many creators of online live broadcasting have specially designed the function of self-contained filter, which can be connected with mobile phone seamlessly, so as to bring better product experience.

21st century: just now you mentioned that the products for ordinary employees have built-in 5g modules. What do you think of the future development trend of 5g PC?

Alex Cho: 5g is an important part of our fast interconnection, which we have always emphasized. In addition to 5g, we also have a large number of modules supporting Wi Fi 6, 4 × 4 antennas and faster LTE communication. We have been investing heavily in such innovations. What 5g network can bring is not only faster interconnection, but also new possibilities for games, education and other industries. These are the future environment that 5g may create. In China, we are cooperating with China Unicom in 5g interconnection module integration, at the same time, we are also carrying out various forms of cooperation in the world. We will continue to invest heavily in this area.

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