HP eyes Chinese expansion

manufacturing facilities in several Chinese cities, writes AFP.

By the end of this year, the company will open a new centre in Beijing dedicated to 'networking and information analytics research', increasing the number of HP's research bases in China to three, the company said in a statement.

According to Bloomberg, the computer maker also said it is accelerating its investments in cloud computing and social media in China, betting the country's five-year plan will lead to more investment in servers and networking gear.

“In China, you can develop a certain number of technologies that are particularly well-suited for other fast-developing markets that have similar characteristics,” CEO Leo Apotheker said in an interview after a press briefing in the nation's capital.

“We already do some research in China, and we want to expand this right here in Beijing so that we can actually have even more leading-edge technology that we can drive out of China.”

Meanwhile, PC World reveals that China is likely to become one of the world's fastest adopters of cloud computing, according to research firm Gartner.

A Gartner survey found that 55% of respondents in China will spend more than 10% of their IT budgets on cloud computing by 2013, in contrast to 49%t of respondents in the US and 42% of respondents in Europe.