‘We will engage with millennials, gaming enthusiasts’

The market trends indicate that gaming in India has seen rapid expansion and adoption in the recent times, said Rajiv Srivastava, Managing Director, HP Inc India.

Hewlett Packard (HP) India on Wednesday has launched slew of gaming products. Called ‘Omen’ range of notebooks and a desktop and priced between ₹79,990 and ₹1.40 lakh, the company will compete with likes of Asus and BenQ, who have a strong line-up of gaming devices.

Introducing the games two years later in India from its global launch, Srivastava said that looking at the trend of growing gaming population in India, the company is now ready for launching such products here.

The products will be available from next month at select HP World stores and HP’s own online portal. In an interview with BusinessLine , Srivastava, shared the company’s strategy. Excerpts:

What was your strategy in launching gaming computers in India now? Isn’t it late?

We wanted to enter the market when we felt we were ready and saw enough potential. The market trends indicate that gaming in India has seen rapid expansion and adoption in the recent times. Currently, the Indian market has the largest size of millennials, more than 50 per cent of who constitute target customers for gaming. The time is right for us to introduce our gaming portfolio to further our strategy in commitment towards providing unparalleled consumer experience.

‘Omen by HP’ is for gamers who need their PC to deliver a great experience while also allowing them the flexibility to choose the level of performance and design that fits their needs.

But what about pricing? How do you convince your customers with such pricing?

The Omen gaming portfolio features a family of devices with a bold new look, offering feature-price value, built to maximize gamers’ experience. Its’ powered with the latest technology with seventh-generation Intel Quad Core processors and 1000 Series GTX Graphics. It also has the configuration option that offers various options to choose the product best matched to your needs.

The portfolio includes five notebook models and one desktop model that will be available in the range of ₹79,990 to ₹1,39,990 and some accessories. To add to it, HP’s after sales support and varied retailing options is bound to excite the target segment.

What is the size of gaming computers in the Indian market? Who is your target customer and how do you plan to covert those who are addicted to other brands?

The FICCI KPMG Report 2016 states that the Indian digital gaming market is likely to grow at a CAGR of 13.8 per cent growth from ₹2,650 crore in 2015 to ₹5,070 crore in 2020. This presents tremendous opportunity to HP since we are now leveraging our market and product leadership and targeting premium consumer categories such as gaming.

There is enough and more headroom for growth in this category. Our leadership in the PC category coupled with a strong retail and after sales support network will enable us to provide end-to-end experience to our customers, existing and potential.

How different is your product from Playstations or Xbox? Are your games all online?

Playstation and Xbox are console-based gaming devices. Products under Omen will be PC based devices (gaming laptops and desktops). These devices can be used to play all available PC based games, online as well as offline.

Will it be your strategy to sell such products in the market where normal PC penetration is low?

Indian economy is expected to grow at seven plus per cent rate, which would be the fastest in the world and with the government’s ‘Digital India’ push, PC penetration is expected to pick up. A natural progression from that would be gaming as more and more youngsters look for ways to spend time on leisure activities.

As far as the gaming community is concerned, we are committed to them and as part of that endeavour, we will initiate activities to engage with millennials and gaming enthusiasts.

How are you participating in Digital India programme?

HP has created a dedicated vertical that is focused on providing HP solutions enabling digital transformation. This division ensures HP’s commitment towards the Digital India programme. With the Core team stationed in Delhi-NCR and representatives in most State capitals, this vertical consist of solution architects and back-end execution professionals working to identify requirements of various Central and State government departments.

HP India also has system integrators (top IT software companies, Telecom, scanning and digitisation companies) that provide customised solutions to government departments. We have undertaken massive data digitisation project with the government of Bihar to help convert all land records (over 50 million documents) into electronic format benefiting millions of land holders.

We have also worked on projects of e-Panchayats, e-Courts, public distribution centres, command & control centres for Security management, education and healthcare.

What are your expectations in the coming year?

We plan to extend our leadership across categories and are focusing on geo-expansion and leadership in 500 cities (from the current 200), leading across all partnerships and pipes while continuing to provide differentiated customer experience.

We want to increase our physical presence across India and establish direct connect with the consumer and thus would be doubling the number of HP World stores from the current 500 and increasing presence across online platforms.

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