Some PC makers raise their prices

Trade

Pictured: Lenovo Ireland GM Fiona O’Brien

HP, Acer and Dell took the lead in raising their prices in Ireland and the UK last month to reflect the increase in the value of the dollar – but a number of other vendors chose not to follow suit while leaving the door open for future rises.

HP said in a statement that it regularly reviewed pricing as part of its portfolio management: “We can confirm that our Personal Systems Group Commercial products portfolio will increase by mid to high single digit percentages in the UK and Ireland.” The firm said the rise was in response to higher business costs in the two countries and to the increasing strength of the dollar.”

Acer and Dell also raised prices, but Lenovo, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Toshiba opted to keep them unchanged.

In a statement, Dell said it was “constantly reviewing market pricing and will adopt the Dell product pricing where we see that a correction is needed. Dell has recently adjusted pricing on individual product lines in order to reflect currency fluctuations”.

Rival PC vendor Lenovo stressed it had not raised prices. “Lenovo currently has no plans to adjust its pricing,” the company stated.

Toshiba Ireland country manager Oliver Carey said the firm was watching exchange rates, including Ireland’s, but it was not increasing prices.

Fujitsu Siemens Computer’s SME and channel sales manager, Ian Newall, said the firm was not increasing prices for the time being. “We want to be as competitive as possible,” he told CRN weekly. “If things change we may have to react, and for projects we may have to put in some caveats on exchange rates.”

Between April and September, the value of the euro against the dollar declined by nearly 8%, from $1.57 to $1.45, while the pound fell by 10% from $1.98 to $1.78.

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