AMI-Partners U.S. Small Business Survey Rates HP No. 1 in Customer Satisfaction and Worldwide Server Installed Base Brand Share.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 2002

Survey Shows HP Leads in Service and Support, Product Performance

and Products Designed for Small Business

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced top ratings for customer satisfaction among U.S.-based small businesses and worldwide server installed brand market share according to an AMI-Partners global small business study released today.

AMI-Partners is a New York-based research and consulting firm focused on the global SMB market and provides focused tracking on IT trends among small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

"As technology vendors seek new avenues for meeting and exceeding their revenue goals in a challenging economic environment, expanding into the SMB market is a logical and perhaps necessary step," said Eric Shuster, managing director and executive vice president, AMI-Partners. "HP is demonstrating its ability to leverage a very broad IT portfolio, and a robust solution providers network, to swiftly and decisively deploy resources and go-to-market strategies that demonstrate a keen understanding of today's SMB customers."

"The AMI-Partners annual study is a comprehensive survey fielded to key IT decision makers across a large, nationally representative sample of SMBs worldwide," said Kyle Ranson, vice president, marketing sales programs and worldwide SMB lead, HP Personal Systems Group. "The rankings of HP products and services in this latest report match what many customers have experienced in doing business with the new HP."

AMI-Partners' latest rankings of global small businesses with 1-99 company employees reflect the following for PC manufacturers:

-- Customer Satisfaction -- "U.S. SBs (small businesses) rated HP the best out of the top eight PC vendors for service and support, product performance, and products designed for small business."

-- Networking and Storage -- "Among the AMI core six markets, AMI estimates server installed base brand share for HP (combined HP and Compaq) to be 50.5 percent among top brands; more than twice the nearest competitor."

-- PC Brand Market share -- HP ranks second worldwide with 17.1 percent market share and leads in PC market share in Germany and Australia.

"We are very pleased with customers' views of our ability to develop and deliver products that are easy to deploy, support and maintain. Our services, which include those delivered by our partners, set us apart from competitors who focus on logistics as their value add," said Robyn West, vice president of Americas region SMB marketing, HP Personal Systems Group. "Our goal is to use both our products and our services to support small- and medium-sized customers as they work to achieve their business goals."

HP offers a broad portfolio of more than 1,000 products designed for small- and medium-sized businesses -- from customized HP PCs, handheld devices, industry-leading ProLiant servers and StorageWorks solutions to printers, scanners, digital imaging products, printing supplies and accessories. The company also offers financial services that enhance small business cash flow and business-critical support services to help small business protect their IT investments.

AMI-Partners estimates that in 2002 global small business IT spending will top $340 billion across 76 million small businesses with 1-99 employees. And, despite an uncertain economy, small businesses will spend an additional $280 billion on telecommunications products and services, giving rise to more than a half trillion dollar worldwide IT and telecom marketplace.

"This study further underscores our organization's confidence in referring HP products and services to the more than 600,000 small businesses that we consult with each year," said Don Wilson, president and chief executive officer, Association of Small Business Development Centers. "As the primary drivers of our economy, small businesses need partners like HP, who deliver convenient ways to purchase highly reliable products that help small businesses be more competitive to achieve success in their respective industries and markets."

Established in 1996, AMI-Partners is well known for its IT and Internet-adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; for its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys; and for its proprietary database collection of several thousand SMBs in the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information with several thousand SMBs globally through the industry's most comprehensive SMB survey instrument and is considered to be the leading benchmark for tracking SMB trends. For more information on AMI-Partners, please visit http://www.ami-partners.com/.

About HP

HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed its merger transaction involving Compaq Computer Corp. on May 3, 2002. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.