HP restructures to get 'personal'

HP Mobility Summit 2007

HP has been restructuring in an effort to provide a more personal service, one of the firm's senior executives has told vnunet.com.

The company has been running a global advertising campaign around the theme of making the computer more personal, but HP senior vice president of marketing Satjiv Chadill claimed that this reflected a broader shift in the firm.

"The computer business is not just about distributing hardware. It is about giving attention based on industry needs, and the need to treat business as personal," he said.

"This includes addressing the specific needs of different industry types as well as those of different departments."

Chadill added that the reorganisation within the Personal Systems Group has made HP more flexible in the way it approaches sales, and should ultimately help it to take on Dell.

HP is attempting to position itself to be more like technology companies such as Apple, Chadill's former employer, and Sony.

"Apple can manage to sell what is basically a hard drive for $500, and yet they were selling entire computer systems for $500. That's the difference marketing makes," he said.