Keep Your Eye on Dell, HP and Staples
Miles was talking about the company's quarterly results in a call with financial analysts, noted some progress Staples has made in the printer and ink space and said:
But Staples isn't focusing just on HP. It's also been working aggressively with its newest big partner, Dell. According to Miles:
It's unclear what's going on behind the scenes, and whether Dell and HP are duking it out between themselves in the price-and-promotion front to keep their brand front and center on the shelves of Staples. It would look that way, but it's not entirely clear by viewing the posted numbers we saw last night from Staples or HP.
The next question: Will HP and Dell work as hard to boost volumes and margins for the commercial VAR channel partners as they seem to be for Staples on the retail front?