by Paul Kunert
12 September 2008
Fujitsu Siemens is resisting exchange rates pressure to put
up prices but may scrutinise the cost of kit in upcoming large corporate
tenders.
Yesterday, HP confirmed it will raise PC and server prices
by 5% to 10% on Monday to counter a strengthening dollar versus the pound and
Acer UK said it too was moving laptop prices up 5% on the same date.
But Ian Newall, Fujitsu Siemens channel and commercial
director for the UK and Ireland said it
did not plan to follow suit which meant “you will see some aggressive prices
for us”.
“Obviously everyone is affected by the exchange rates but
channel pricing will remain the same but we may review the future pricing for
large tenders but that is dependent on the product set.
This year Fujitsu Siemens has not chased large deals with
aggressive pricing, which means it has lost market share in the UK market while
other vendors fought it out, so it probably has more room to absorb the
currency change.
Other vendors including Toshiba and Lenovo are playing a
waiting game to ascertain if a price rise is required.
“We are constantly looking at exchange rates but haven’t
made any decisions at this time,” said Alan Munro, vice president for the UK and Ireland for Lenovo.
“We need to get the right balance, the channel is important
to us and we are trying to maintain as much consistency as possible. The
exchange rate is not helping us right now but we’ll keep monitoring it,” he
added.
