HP Says Japanese Employees Safe, Prices Going Up
Hewlett-Packard released some information on how it and its local operations were affected from the Japanese earthquake – the same story it shares with other major players in the tech industry. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, HP noted all of its local employees are safe and none of its Tokyo offices sustained any major structural damage – its office in Sendai however, near the quake’s epicenter, remains closed.
The manufacturer also noted how the quake affected its local, and consequently global, operations. For starters, toners and Laserjet printers are about to get more expansive:
“HP said it gets components used to manufacture some of its products from suppliers with operations in Japan, and that revenue from Japan historically has accounted for 3 percent to 4 percent of its revenue.
Those components include LaserJet printer engines and toner, which it gets from a partner with manufacturing facilities in Japan, HP said.”
Canalys PC analyst Tim Coullingc noted that the other consumer product components factories in Japan are already pushing prices higher, and that “the importance of Japan for the memory market will be a worry.”
Hewlett-Packard is not the only member of the tech industry affected by the quake. Apple for example postponed the debut of the iPad 2 in Japan, which is currently selling 67 percent faster than its predecessor in the U.S and Europe, until further notice. Japan is also providing the tech industry with raw materials, flexible-PCBs, passives/filters, memory components and semiconductors – an export disrupted by the quake, which disrupted both local and global markets to some extent.
Hewlett-Packard, like countless others, was affected by the Japanese disaster, but the company is striding forward with its major recent pushes. The company yesterday announced its HP Prepaid Card Services suit as a new means of directly reaching customers and encourage purchases. Two days prior, HP had yet another, very long-awaited announcement: it will begin offering cloud services, infrastructure and apps.
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