Review Central speaks to Mathew Thomas, the Managing Director for Middle East, Turkey, and East Africa at HP, about the company’s plans for GITEX Shopper Spring 2017
What is your theme for GITEX Shopper Spring 2017?
At GITEX Shopper, our theme will be centered around “Reinventing personal systems and printing solutions” for consumers. HP will continue to reinforce our position and remain at the forefront of creating and delivering disruptive, innovative technologies in response to a constantly evolving market landscape. We are committed to our vision to create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere.
Mathew Thomas, VP & MD, HP Middle East and Saudi Arabia.
How important is GITEX Shopper for your company’s overall regional strategy?
GITEX Shopper is the region’s biggest consumer electronics event with power retailers and world class brands. It provides leading consumer brands like HP the perfect platform to showcase our innovative products through leading retailers in the UAE and give visiting consumers the perfect opportunity to learn more and purchase HP products at the best retail price available. The event is also an opportunity for us to connect with channel partners and share best customer practices for the personal systems and printing markets.
What sort of special offers and promotional activities will HP run during GITEX Shopper?
During the event, we will be offering a variety of promotions, bundle packs and on-the-spot prizes across our laptops and personal printers. Our most popular laptops at the show this year include the HP Spectre X360 and the HP OMEN 15-ax200. We will also be promoting our DeskJet Series printers, which include the HP DeskJet GT 5820 and HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 3785. We are expecting an eventful 4 days so we are inviting all show visitors to our leading retailers to check out the latest deals for HP products.
What technology trends do you see in the regional market?
Today, HP is well-positioned to deliver on the trends that are shaping the future, one of which is how our customer needs are constantly evolving. The lines between work and personal life are increasingly blurring, especially among the always-on millennials. This trend is one of the most significant factors impacting our core market.
We’re meeting this need with new thin and light laptops, such as the Spectre, to provide power performance, high-definition displays and slick multimedia features, as well as tablets that offer new versatility by providing the full productivity of a notebook.
The gaming industry is growing globally especially in the Middle East due to trends such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. Each new generation of games ups the ante in terms of experience, serving a wider and more diverse demographic of players across the generations, from grade schoolers to college students to adults. As gaming has evolved into a 3D experience, HP’s Omen gaming laptops and Omen X gaming desktop and backpack, launched earlier this year, deliver the ultimate immersive experience and enables user customization, a must-have for the avid gamer.
For the printing market, which is considered a relatively mature market, there are pockets of growth and at HP we’re finding innovative ways to ignite a new age of print enthusiasts in a variety of segments. For many consumers, particularly millennials, there’s something familiar and even nostalgic about print, whether it involves reading a book or sharing a memory in a card. Whether the need is business or personal, HP’s innovative print technology is enabling new applications and creating new opportunities with our current portfolio of PageWide, LaserJet, DeskJet and InkJet printers.
