Curious to find out the possible thinking behind HP’s recent actions, we began to look at the parallels in past behavior by tech giant HP. The most interesting example comes from VoodooPC, one of the first high-end gaming PCs for the mass market. Led by Rahul Sood, HP bought VoodooPC in 2006 and the last product to come out of that branch was launched in 2009.
In short, we wanted to know if HP really was where good ideas go to die.
Mr. Sood was kind enough to answer a few questions.
TC: We at TC have been talking about how great VoodooPC was. We all loved the hardware and I remember unpacking the boxes and hearing the drums. It was consumer done right. I also think there are a lot of parallels between Voodoo and Palm in this case. Do you agree?
Rahul Sood: I appreciate the kind words, and I know my friends at HP will also appreciate them as well. Let’s just say if you’re going to make a strategic acquisition, no matter how large, you need to have patience to blend cultures and allow the companies to mutually flourish. → Read More
If you look carefully at why HP bailed on consumer electronics and PCs, there are a few clear and simple reasons. The primary one? HP was number one in sales but – at least by Amplicate’s arguably loose methodology – number seven in mindshare. In the end, it looks like it was better to let someone else flog the hardware while HP did what it always did best: tell businesses how to spend money in tech.
So who is taking over for HP? Well, according to a Digitimes report, it looks like HP will be handing the keys to their brand over to Samsung, much as IBM did when it partnered with Lenovo to sell laptops and PCs. → Read More
As I write this, I’m sitting in a cafe. Around me, there are five people on laptops — four of them are MacBooks. Four other people are using tablets — all four are iPads. Welcome to the Post-PC world.
That phrase was one of the first things that jumped to my mind today when I heard the news that HP was not only killing off their TouchPad and Pre webOS-based products, but also trying to spin-off their PC business. The largest PC business in the world, mind you.
And HP’s statements during their earnings call today only further reaffirmed the idea of the Post-PC world. → Read More
This morning, HP admitted failure.
After spending $1.2 billion to acquire Palm, they announced that they were killing off the development of all smartphones and tablets running Palm’s webOS platform — including the just launched TouchPad. Having survived for just 49 days before its death, it’s tragic that TouchPad lived just one day longer than the oft-mocked Microsoft Kin.
webOS itself, as a platform, isn’t entirely dead. HP says they’ll “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS”, which is really just a fancy way of saying “Yeah, we’re still not entirely sure what the hell we’re going to do with this thing.”
There’s a way out here, HP — and it’s all thanks to Google’s acquisition of Motorola. → Read More
After confirming its intention to purchase software company Autonomy, HP released stronger than expected third fiscal quarter 2011 initial financial results, posting $31.2 billion, an increase of 2 percent from $30.7 billion one year ago.
In the third quarter, preliminary GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $0.93 and non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.10. Analysts expected EPS of $1.09 and $31.19 billion in revenue. → Read More
Brace yourselves, webOS fans.
In the hours leading up to their Q3 conference call later today, HP has just confirmed that they will be discontinuing operations surrounding the TouchPad and all webOS phones. → Read More
Western Europe is a tough place to be for PC manufacturers right now. According to a report from technology research firm Gartner, sales are down nearly across the board, with just a single exception: Apple. → Read More
The HP Pre3 launched in Europe today, and oddly enough, HP had very little to say about it. With the TouchPad price falling like a rock, you’d expect that its intended complementary device — and HP’s flagship phone — would launch with more fanfare. But instead HP let the device land in its EuroStore and gave a short response to PreCentral, the first publication to notice its availability. Either way, the most important thing is that the SIM-free smartphone is ready to roll. → Read More
HP stated from the start that it planned on putting webOS in more than just smartphones and tablets. It foresaw a time when webOS would run printers, netbooks, and the world! Well, the time has come. HP is looking to grow the webOS base and expand into the world of major appliances and automotive.
HP invested $1.2 billion into Palm last year and from an outsider’s standpoint, it’s hard to view that as a wise investment even when considering the 1,500 patents that were part of the deal. The chief product, the webOS TouchPad, is floundering in the marketplace. Spotting a webOS smartphones in the wild is akin to seeing MG using a Xoom. WebOS is a fine operating system, but consumers just haven’t latched on for various reasons. HP is now looking outside the traditional CE realm for help. → Read More
Never mind the marketplace is having a hard time selling the first TouchPad. Never mind that it has a fraction of the apps found on competing platforms. Never mind that it works best when paired with the least popular smartphone. HP is prepping a new TouchPad for an US launch. The TouchPad Go is a 7-inch tablet from the same strain the produced the original. Oh goodie. → Read More
If at first you don’t succeed, keep reducing the price until something sticks. HP is reducing the price of the 16GB HP TouchPad to $399 – $100 off the original price.
This comes after HP’s move to reduce the price $50 a few days ago. These swift price changes are pretty odd, to be sure, and if things go any lower I’d suspect HP was telegraphing slow sales.
→ Read More
HP has just released a new over-the-air update to the TouchPad, WebOS 3.0.2, that improves the OS slightly including improved auto-correction, the inclusion of wallpaper support, and improved photo handling.
The update will appear automatically for TouchPad owners and most devices should receive the update in the next few hours. → Read More
In the past few years, Apple has been in berzerker mode. Not even 15 years ago, they were on the verge of collapse when Michael Dell famously said that if he were CEO of Apple he would, “shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders”. Apple now has a market cap well over ten times that of Dell’s. And in the past year or so, Apple has even managed to far surpass their old nemesis, Microsoft, in terms of market cap, revenue, and profit.
Today, Apple’s stock closed above $400 a share for the first time. This has pushed their market cap up to roughly $375 billion, making my prediction that they have a shot at catching Exxon to become the most valuable public company in the world this fall, look pretty good (they’re now “just” $45 billion away).
But what’s next? What other mountain can Apple scale? Well, there’s still a pretty big one in the tech sphere. → Read More
HP TouchPads now have a bit video content thanks to the just-announced Yamgo app. Like the other mobile incarnations of this app, the webOS version streams live content from select networks directly to the tablet. For free.
The UK-based company already has apps out for nearly every platform including iOS, Android, and Blackberry. The service delivers live sports, news, music videos and entertainment shows directly to these devices. The TouchPad is just the latest device to get in on the fun. → Read More
Such is the life of a device. If you can’t beat ‘em, undercut them. That’s just what’s happening at Amazon and Best Buy who both are now selling the Touchpad under it’s MSRP by a fair margin.
The 16GB model is cut by $10 at both retailers, making the price $489.99. The 32GB model is 5% under list at Amazon making it $572.65 while Best Buy just took a clean $20 off resulting in a $579.99 price. Good news for those still on fence, but not so much for those that jumped on the webOS tablet right away. → Read More
The TouchPad is here (we reviewed it), but it’s far from done. There are more varieties of the webOS tablet to hit, to begin with, and we’ve heard that a 7-inch version is on its way as well. Then, there’s the Pre 3, which was supposedly hitting in July. These vague visions of the future have all been cast in perfect clarity by this allegedly leaked roadmap document. → Read More
We didn’t exactly heart the TouchPad. We didn’t hate it, either. We even said that “WebOS and the Palm TouchPad are nearly perfect, an excellent amalgamation of everything that was ever right about Palm.” Granted, perfection in this industry lasts about as long as a battery cycle, and we had plenty to gripe about, but as far as the TouchPad goes, we have hope.
But day-one reviews haven’t been as understanding as we were, which has prompted HP’s webOS boss Jon Rubinstein to blast out an internal letter of support to both the TouchPad engineers and the webOS 3.0 development team encouraging them to keep up the work and continue believing in the product. → Read More
In this episode of Fly Or Die we go through a few popular gadgets including the MacBook-alike HP Probook 5330m, the EFun Nextbook, and the Nokia N9.
We found most of the devices to be acceptable but we were in agreement about the crablet EFun Nextbook which is about the worst piece of garbage imaginable (based on our extensive test that involved us looking at the thing as it crashed constantly.) → Read More
Does this thing look familiar to you? Granted, there are plenty of little differences, but at a first glance, what does this remind you of? If you said MacBook Pro, congratulations, we’re on the same wave length. The brushed metal finish, the keyboard, the black bezel around the screen… it all screams Apple. That’s all I’ll say on the matter, but I maintain that it had to be said. Starting at $799 configurations, how will it stack up against competition from Lenovo, Toshiba, and others? Let’s see.
I spent a week with the 13.3-inch ProBook and found that overall, it’s a very well-made little beast. Under the hood, you’ll find a 2.5 GHz Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics, a 500GB 7,200-rpm drive, and Windows 7 Professional. → Read More
Loopinsight has an interview with HP’s developer relations guy, Richard Kerris, where he basically says that WebOS is HP’s enterprise strategy, not their consumer play. He says:
“We think there’s a better opportunity for us to go after the enterprise space and those consumers that use PCs,” said Kerris. “This market is in it’s infancy and there is plenty of room for both of us to grow.”
“We think the world of Apple and have the utmost respect for their products,” said Kerris. “It would be ignorant for us to say that we are going to take it [the market] away from Apple.”
San Francisco, CA
