HP CEO Enrique Lores Sees ‘Good News For The Channel’ With PC Refresh Into 2026

‘As you know, 90-plus percent of our business is channel-driven, whether it’s commercial or retail. And the fact that we grew PCs significantly was good news for the channel,’ HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores said ahead of earnings Wednesday.

HP Inc. CEO Enrique Lores sees a richer future ahead for PCs with a refresh that will continue past the Windows 10 end of life and include a greater number of AI PCs

“We think that we still have a long way to go on the Windows 11 refresh, which means there is opportunity in Q4 and for the rest of the next year,” Lores said during a media pre-briefing before the company’s third-quarter earnings on Wednesday. “Our estimate is that only a bit more of 50 percent of the install base has been converted, which means it will take a few quarters still to complete the transition.”

Lores said the company is also seeing AI PCs take a larger share of its overall device sales. He said AI PCs grew double digits quarter over quarter and now make up a 25 percent of the mix of its personal systems sales, which he called “good news for the channel.”

“I think we have a very strong line-up of AI PCs, and the channel is responding fairly positively,” said Lores, responding to a question from CRN. “As you know, 90-plus percent of our business is channel-driven, whether it’s commercial or retail. And the fact that we grew PCs significantly was good news for the channel. So I think we did well on the channel front.”

Overall sales at the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company were up 3 percent last quarter as the company capitalized on the PC refresh, generating $13.9 billion in revenue for its third quarter. This was the company’s fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth.

Inside of its PC unit, HP saw strong growth in consumer sales with an 8 percent increase year over year. The commercial business grew 5 percent.

According to the latest figures from IDC, HP has captured 20.8 percent of the PC market with year-over-year unit growth of 4.5 percent on shipments of 14.29 million devices. Lores expects no slowdown going forward.

“We remain confident in the PC market opportunity, and expect mid-single digit growth in H2 and growth to continue into fiscal year 2026 driven by Windows 11 and AI PC adoption,” he said.

HP said printer sales were down 4 percent for the quarter to $4.0 billion, with a 17.3 percent operating margin. Inside those numbers, HP said its consumer printing business dropped 8 percent year over year, while its commercial print business was down 3 percent.