HP says printers finding new market in 'crafters' as offices digitalize

HP Philippines Managing Director Ida Ong-Co talks about the company's latest innovations during the HP Philippines Day 2025 event in Pasay City. Arthur Fuentes, ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Tech giant HP said printers remain a big part of its business even as offices digitalize.

HP Philippines Managing Director Ida Ong-Co said a new market for printers is crafts enthusiasts or 'crafters' who like to print their designs, with some even making a business out of their crafts.

She said HP recently held a "print party" for crafters at a historic site in Manila which was very well received by the community.

"With consumers, it was a big hit," Ong-Co said on the sidelines of the HP Philippines Day 2025 in Pasay City.

"My sister is actually a crafter herself. And she needs to use a printer to make use of all the designs and the scrapbooking and stuff," Ong-Co added.

Craft enthusiasts participate in the HP Print Party at the First Coworking Space in Escolta, Manila. Handout

She said printers remain a key segment of HP's business.

"I know that digitalization is continuous out there. But hard copy prints will still be in demand," Ong-Co said.

HP also touted its new line of laptops and desktops, including models with HP AI Companion, which the company said is a personal AI assistant designed to enhance productivity and streamline tasks on its Next Gen AI PCs.

On higher-end PCs, HP AI Companion can do tasks like summarizing articles, generating content, and answering user queries without the need for an internet connection, a company official said.

Ong-Co said that while the enterprise market remains the biggest contributor to HP's revenues, the company is also beefing up its presence in retail.

"We're actually on a retail transformation, so we're on a continuous progress," Ong-Co said. HP has opened more concept stores and deployed more branding modules in other stores in the span of a year, she said.

Industry tracker IDC said HP is the third-largest PC vendor in the Philippines, with a 15.3 percent share of the market as of the first quarter of 2025. 

IDC noted that PC demand from private organizations and consumers continues to rise even though shipments of desktops, laptops and workstations dropped by 12.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter mainly due to the end of the Department of Education's three-year computerization program.