'500 more Outlets and a Lot to Show Off’’

l What is IPG’s

role in post-merger HP where its contribution to overall revenues would have

gone down. But given that this division has traditionally been HP’s most

profitable - will there be an attempt to increase its share of the pie?



Globally, pre merger HP got 33% of its revenues from the Imaging and

Printing Group. Post merger, that has gone down to 25%. In most countries it

actually stands at about 20-22% of overall revenues. Things are slightly

different in India where IPG’s share of revenues has gone down from 36%

pre-merger to about 26.5% post-merger. We don’t expect that to change very

drastically. While this has been our more profitable division, it might be

difficult to grow an already large market share.

Ravi Aggarwal

l How much of

the product rollover is just an upgrade?



This is not about upgrades. It’s a complete roll over. We’re releasing

25 new products now and that will go up to a total of 42 in the next couple of

months. These products have taken close to three years to develop. We are

talking about the next level of technology and in most cases, these are new

platforms.

l Is this

really a good time? And what is the business rationale for a rollover of such

scale?



We have better technology, so we would like to pass it on. But the business

rationale is that by now, most of our competitors have caught up with us. They

have begun to offer almost everything that we have. If we wanted to keep the

kind of market share we have, it was time we offered something new. We are also

getting into new categories like the All in Ones. HP’s also getting into

Digital Cameras. Nearly 65% of all HP patents come from IPG - this is where we

are most innovative.

l Your group

is also responsible for the company’s entire consumer and retail strategy. Are

we likely to see some changes there?



Oh yes. Plenty. For one, our retail outlets will get a lot more robust. We

really have the entire range of products now and with the 500 retail outlets we

inherited from Compaq - we now have a way of showing them off. One of the places

where we didn’t score too much - selected buying - where consumers actually

wanted to come and play around with a product before buying it, should change

now. We are adopting the pizza delivery model with our dial-a-cartridge

initiative in select metros. Delivery promised in four hours. You should see at

least one or two retail stores in every city that offer instant replacement.

Sarita Rani and Abhinav Singh/CNS