HP says networking vendors can't make money on IPv6

FLOGGER OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER INK HP has said that network vendors won't be able to use IPv6 as a way of flogging more network equipment to users.

Yanick Pouffary, HP's IPv6 worldwide leader told The INQUIRER that most network firms can't expect to make a penny from new hardware sales. Pouffary pointed to the fact that IPv6 had been seen so far ahead by vendors that most users won't need to buy new hardware because current kit, regardless of vendor, most likely already supports IPv6.

Pouffray, when asked whether customers see IPv6 as a ploy to flog new hardware replied, "Absolutely not, no one is requesting for more money to sell IPv6 hardware. It is not a way to sell more hardware and HP is not pushing for hardware refresh. 99.99 per cent of the time it's just a matter of enabling the software that's running on the hardware."

Just as there has been pressure for governments and the European Union to push firms to deploy fiber-optic broadband, Pouffray said that similar interventions should also be pressed for IPv6. "Government incentives and mandates are extremely important in addressing the transformation [to IPv6]. We're talking about infrastructure here [...] and it's all about restoring the criticality of the infrastructure."

HP has spent billions beefing up its network division in the past two years, and is like many other network vendors and operators pushing IPv6. However the fact that it doesn't expect to make any more cash from IPv6 is surprising for a firm that milks its printer cartridge business to the maximum.

Even though HP and other high-end network vendors don't expect to sell much kit on the IPv6 bandwagon, in the consumer market it might be a different story. Given that few internet service providers (ISPs) have deployed IPv6 on the last mile, it is possible that the built-to-a-budget routers they have sent to customers might need to be changed out.

Sadly for HP and other networking vendors, that business will be picked up by other vendors. µ