Yesterday, the news brought word that Hewlett-Packard had reportedly threatened its partners not to take orders from ASUS, otherwise the company would penalize the maker. It was said that HP's reaction was provoked by the fact that ASUS had set the goal to become the fourth largest personal computers vendor in the world next year. Since ASUS' current position affects very little, if at all, HP, the worldwide leading vendor of personal computers, industry watchers wouldn't understand such a move from the largest PC maker.

The company was reported to have sent notice to its manufacturing partners that it would reduce its orders if they took orders from ASUS as well. For what it’s worth, HP seems rather unaware of such notice to have been sent and also strongly denies the news DigiTimes originally published yesterday citing “industry sources”.

“HP categorically denies these allegations,” a spokesperson from the company is reported by TechRadar to have said. “HP did not send out any notice, nor did it communicate in any manner to its manufacturing partners that they not accept orders from Asustek,” the source continued. It makes better sense for the worldwide No. 1 personal computer maker not to have done such a thing, since ASUS does not represent a big threat to its position, as Acer or Lenovo.

“HP has strong 'standards of business' and policies and competes fairly in the market,” the spokesperson concluded. There is no doubt about the fact that HP has a very good position on the PC market, although some financial analysts say that it started to move a little bit slower during the second quarter of the year and that Dell seems on its way to catch up with the leader. We are expecting to see an official statement from the company as well, one that will confirm that it competes fairly on the market, and not trying to undermine the weaker.