How H-P Used Tactics of the Japanese to Beat Them at Their Game

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How H-P Used Tactics of the Japanese to Beat Them at Their Game By Stephen Kreider Yoder 1. Before introducing its inkjet printers, did Hewlett-Packard have to estimate the demand curve for them? Since there wasn’t an existing market for inkjet printers, HP could only examine the current market demand and supply for the dot matrix printers. While HP had already begun to fine-tune their “accidental discovery of thermal inkjet printing in 1980”, engineers knew that the United State’s fast-paced computer market yielded a wealth of new opportunity for printers (Yoder, p.2). Knowing that changes in consumer tastes/preferences and technological improvements within the industry would lead to the shift in the market demand for printers, HP executives believed that the time was right to invest heavily and “build a new family of products” to be proactive in meeting new consumer demands that would result from the rapidly changing U.S. computer industry of the early 1990s. Before pursuing research, development, and technological investment to manufacture a new line of inkjet printers, HP needed to create/evaluate an estimated demand curve based on data from sales and market conditions of the dot matrix printers; a market controlled by the Japanese company, NEC Corporation. Engaging in market studies of various dot matrix printer models and the pros/cons associated with each would give HP the insight to identify opportunities to fulfill needs within the market. HP executives recognized that timing was critical; launching a new, competitively priced printer, capable of producing higher quality print than the dot matrix would be their key to gaining a competitive edge and gaining market share over the Japanese. That being said, by 1995 Hewlett-Packard dominated the business market with a 68% market share for inkjet and laser printers, where no other manufacturer was

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