HP to Reinforce R&D Staff in Taiwan

Taipei, Jan. 29, 2008 (CENS)--HP Taiwan Chairman R.J. Yang yesterday said HP will increase the number of engineers at its product development center in Taiwan to 600 by the end of this year from current 300, to keep up with expansions of its handheld-gadget, desktop-computer, and server lineups.

Yang pointed out that HP will accelerate its plan to move desktop-computer and server R&D teams at its Huston center to Taiwan in consideration of lower costs in Taiwan than in the United States and Taiwan's status as the world manufacturing hub of ODM-based handheld gadgets and desktop computers.

HP will expand staff at its Taiwan product development center at a rate of 30 engineers a month, a move which is expected to help improve efficiency of communications between the company and Taiwanese ODM-basis suppliers.

The world's No.1 PC supplier opened the Taiwan center in 2002, at which time specialists were only numbered at 24 with Taiwanese accounting for only 5%. Specialist number was increased to 160 in the third operating year, with Taiwanese adding up to 75% of the total.

Over the past five years, the HP product center in Taiwan has mainly focused on notebook-computer developments and has introduced over 50 product lines in over 100 specifications including its first multimedia center edition (MCE) notebook.

Software is also a focal business on its agenda for this year. Yang said his company will triple its software talents this year. Last year alone, HP's global software business unit, Yang said, saw revenue shoot up 306%. He added that the company's software operation will likely maintain sustainable growth this year regardless of house loan credit crisis in the United States and Taiwan's political uncertainty.

Yang said HP has aggressively expanded its turf in software market via acquisitions. Early this year, the company announced it signed an agreement to acquire software manufacturer Exstream, which specializes in enterprise software for simplifying and transmitting individual documents and communication data.

A HP Taiwan executive pointed out that HP retained the No.1 title of laser printer and ink-jet printer in Taiwan last year by delivering 440,000 printers both types combined. The company's share of Taiwan market for printers rose to 43% last year from 2004's 34%.

According to IDC's statistics, HP retained the No.1 title of notebook computer sales last year by shipping 23.3 million notebook computers worldwide, surging 58% from a year earlier. In the fourth quarter of last year, HP bagged 21.4% of global notebook market, leading No.2 player Acer's 15.7%. HP Taiwan executives forecast HP's sales of personal computers to increase 10% this year, higher than average 5% increase for the market as a whole.