HP Score Harvey Norman MMC Deal

Harvey Norman is set to cut a deal with HP to exclusively sell Intel Viiv Media Centres at the expense of white box manufacturers like Altech.

 The move will be backed by a major advertising campaign in partnership with Intel and Microsoft.The move will upset several manufacturers as to date HP Media Centre offerings which are housed in old fashioned workstation PC cases have proved unpopular with consumers.  According to a SmartHouse Research Study the tower media centres are seen as the least popular of available media centre cases? The most popular are the media centres housed in cases that look similar to Hi Fi receivers.

 Up until a few weeks ago according to Harvey Norman insiders the Company was looking to range the Altech range but this changed after pressure from a former HP executive who now works at Harvey Norman? However it is believed that HP is set to launch a new range of Viiv Media Centres PC’s which will be incorporated into new slick casings. Guyon Collins the Consumer Marketing Manager said “we are already in Harvey Norman and we cannot and will not comment on new future models”.

 The move to get Altech into Harvey Norman was spearheaded by Intel Retail Manager Rachael Turney. For Intel Australia there is a big benefit in having a local white box manufacturer ranged at a mass retailer as this translates into local processor and board sales. Altech are currently talking to Harvey Norman subsidiary Dommayne about the possibility of selling a Media Centre with a BluRay disc player.