2012 Channel Champions: Notebooks/Mobile Computers

Hewlett-Packard claimed this year's top spot in the Notebooks/Mobile Computers category and beat out last year's champ Lenovo in all three subcategories. Scoring especially well in product quality and reliability with a 92.3, the PC giant pulled ahead of fellow contenders Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Toshiba and Panasonic in all technical satisfaction criteria. But HP also won overall with its channel support ratings, beating out rivals in every criteria, except postsales support, and education and enablement, where Dell and Lenovo each were tops, respectively.

In the financials factors rating, HP fell short only in the competitive pricing criterion, where Acer came out on top. But it won in the other three criteria, including product margins, SPIFs and rebates.

Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Channel Sales at HP Mike Parrottino said the company's PartnerOne program, specifically its New Business Opportunity (NBO) and price-match guarantee offerings for partners, are to thank for the win. The company also has revamped and simplified its branding strategy, Parrottino said, which allows partners to more easily navigate such a sprawling portfolio of products.

"Year after year, we "Yea "Year after year, we have invested in the channel more than the previous year," he explained. "And that's not going to stop," he said. John Convery, HP partner and executive vice president of vendor relations and marketing at Denali Advanced Integration, a Redmond, Wash.-based solution provider, noted that HP's continual channel investments, particularly in its support and training offerings, were paying off.

"[HP's] channel training teams and technical support teams, certifications, customer demo programs, and special pricing programs make it very easy for the customer and the partner to decide on HP," said Convery.