Laptop sales, driven by people working and learning from home to curb the pandemic’s spread, helped HP Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. soften the impact from lower office-equipment spending.
HP on Tuesday reported an 18% increase in revenue from notebooks for the quarter ended Oct. 31 on record volume. Sales of desktops and workstations fell. Overall, revenue slipped 1% to $15.26 billion, but, according to FactSet, beat analysts’ expectations.
The consumer business again drove sales, with key areas such as gaming showing strong gains, HP Chief Executive Enrique Lores said in an interview. The pandemic has shown that individuals need their own device to work, learn or play, he said, but “we’re far from everybody having access to a PC in each of the countries where we do business.”
Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said on a conference call: “I don’t think you can get by having a [single] PC for everyone in the home now.”
Both HP and Dell said they expect higher laptop demand to carry over into 2021, though Mr. Lores said processor and panel shortages will likely continue to drag on sales through the first half of the year.
