HP to ramp up gaming efforts

PC maker banking on e-sports players to take on competitors like Lenovo

HP Inc is ramping up resources to target young Chinese gaming enthusiasts as the world's largest personal computer maker aims to take on its arch rival Lenovo Group Ltd on the latter's home turf.

Jason Juang, HP's managing director for China unit, said with the rapid development of China's e-sports market, gaming has become a way of life for the younger generation to demonstrate their personality, and even a cultural phenomenon.

"Apart from building tailor-made hardware for Chinese gaming enthusiasts, we will also step up our push to organize offline activities to help create bigger gaming communities in the country," said Juang.

His comments came as HP unveiled its latest gaming PC in Beijing. Priced from 6,499 yuan ($1,015) in China, the new Omen laptop is described as "faster, smaller and more powerful than ever", and features an 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor.

This is part of HP's broader push to tap into China's e-sports market, which is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan in 2018, up from 73 billion yuan last year, according to gaming research institution Gamma Data Corp.

To build its popularity among young consumers, HP has joined hands with RNG, a Chinese professional e-sports team which won the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational championship, an important annual League of Legends gaming tournament in the world.

HP's intensified push in China came after the US tech company exceeded expectations in the quarter that ended on April 30, aided largely by the recovery of the PC market. Its latest financial data showed that HP posted 7 percent year-on-year unit growth in notebooks and desktops, increasing its market share lead over Lenovo, who not too long ago had claimed the top spot.

That is in line with a report by market research company International Data Corp, which found that HP accounts for 22 percent of the global PC market in the first quarter of 2018, with Lenovo holding 20.4 percent.

Neha Mahajan, senior research analyst for devices and displays at IDC, said though the global PC market has remained flat for several quarters, there is hope in the rapidly burgeoning gaming PC industry, which delivers a good opportunity for vendors.

Last week, HP also unveiled keyboards and a mouse tailor-made for its gaming laptops, in the hope of offering a package service for e-sports fans.