In line with chairman John Young’s strategy, announced early in 1986, of concentrating of producing the best computer possible but leaving applications software to others, Hewlett-Packard is looking to double, to 60, its number of UK resellers by the end of October this year. According to Hewlett’s UK third party marketing manager Graham Valentine, the new resellers will fill the gaps in the range of software currently offered on the company’s machines. He says he is looking not only for value added resellers who wish to increase the number of machines on which they can offer products, but, more importantly, for cottage industries that can blossom. We are in the game of playing spot-the-winner, so we are prepared to support OEM customers as they go through the learning curve. To this end, all new signings will be given a two-year contract with a flat rate of discount. Hewlett-Packard has traditionally done well in manufacturing and distribution and Valentine is confident that those strengths will continue while other areas are opened up. In particular, he is looking for great things from Unix-based applications on the HP9000/840 which is due for delivery this week. He describes the box’s price-performance as quite staggering – the machine just enjoyed a 28% or so price reduction (CI No 605), and is confident of finding the OEM customers to help the product sell. Valentine says that the delay to the RISC-based top-end HP3000/930 will have no impact on the company’s third party sales.
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