No more HP-P(O)Cs

[MIDI Life Crisis]

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/18/technol ... ?hpt=hp_t2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[David Polich]

HP - buh-bye. We hardly knew ye...

[Frodo]

Quote... almost:

"The bold move to reshape HP... would be in line with the strategic vision of CEO Leo Apotheker..."

They can only hope that Dr. Apotheker has the right prescriptions.

"The tablet effect is real," Apotheker said on the call with analysts on Thursday. "Consumers are changing how they use PCs."

Yeah. That's because consumers are using iPads! The day of dictating what's what to consumers is over. Survival during a touchy economy? Ya gotta LISTEN to consumers to figure out what separates them from their money without a trace of condescension.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

That, and the guys name is Leo for Burt's sake! How could he say otherwise with Lion being released?

[mrbillet]

It's sad how much technology is in this HP Touchpad and they just can't do anything with them. They are probably great devices but I just don't have any desire to own one. All the apps I want are on iPad, maybe some are on Android too at this point. What a waste of human and environmental resources in the Touchpad. Hopefully the parts and people who designed them can be recycled.

-Ian

[MIDI Life Crisis]

It may also be about being a leader. For years the PC world laughed at Apple's share of the market but were blind to the fact that they still had a proprietary system. Was that a bad thing? Apparently not. Now Apple took their idea to phones, players, TV, and now the max - iPad. Bloody smart folks over there. Now HP is saying 'people are changing.' No. Apple has changed the freakin communication and computing world. Everywhere you look, there's an iPhone. Even on the news last night, scenes from some big social media event in the Middle East - everybody had iPhones. Everybody I know has one except maybe one hold out who just hates AT&T and Verison.  

No, my take on it is HP is getting out of computing because they see the writing on the wall. One day, every office will have a Mac. And we will clean all the carpets!

[mhschmieder]

It's sad, because many felt the OS was the best yet; better than iOS or Android. So now I guess we'll never get to find out. It reminds me of the death of the Amiga, which had the best OS at the time but not enough apps or momentum.

[Shooshie]

I don't think HP's WebOS was better than iOS, and I'm damned sure that the experience of using their tablet sucked. HP's problems started years ago, and I'm surprised they've held on for so long. It's exactly like the company in Dilbert.

Ironic story: my son works in iOS development for wall street firms, and has made games and other things for the iOS. He sees what's going on all around him in the mobile device races, and he's told me many times that if you're not in iOS or Android, you're going to be out of a job.

Fast Forward to sometime this past week: he met one of his old friends from HP who told him he was now on the WebOS development team. My son told him -- quite sincerely -- "prepare for layoffs. If it's not iOS or Android, there's not much chance of survival." It was literally the next day that HP announced they were dropping the tablet, WebOS, and their entire PC line.

If they pull off this switch to a data services company, based on their servers, it will be miraculous. They do have a strong server division, but sources tell me they have scrambled to keep up with the technology, and have attempted to write their own again and again, spending untold millions, only to always end up buying some small company that already had it, and then laying off all their own teams who were working on it. Their treatment of employees has resulted in completely disloyalty, poor attitudes, and a loss of reputation. The dropping of WebOS, their tablet and PCs has only made that worse. People with great skills who can get jobs anywhere are not going to work for HP. That leaves them internally in great chaos. I really don't think they'll survive. It's sad that a company which has been in the middle of the tech revolution since the first hand-held calculators is now on the brink of the abyss, but it's a problem they created themselves through greedy management that does not listen to their employees or customers.

Shooshie

[James Steele]

FWIW, they're still doing well in the printer business, but yep... that's not enough to avoid more layoffs. Unless Apple drops the ball they'll continue to dominate. It's interesting though, because you must continually innovate and you can't look over your shoulder to see what's gaining on you or you'll be passed. As big as Apple is, Google is now a behemoth and Apple is in for a fight. The real concern for me, if I were a shareholder is who is being groomed to fill the vacuum that will someday be left when Jobs retires?

The thing I find most amusing about all of this is that years ago we all thought Microsoft would rule everything by now. That goes back to that "innovation" thing again.

[Frodo]

The real concern for me, if I were a shareholder is who is being groomed to fill the vacuum that will someday be left when Jobs retires?

That thought has been festering in the back of my mind for years. He left once and we got a bunch of machines with model numbers so complex that none of it made sense. That included more than SIXTY models of the Performa, which was never among their best machines even when they were still in production. There was also the "attack of the clones"-- not the movie, but those PowerComputing knock offs.

Jobs returned and no longer did we have to worry about whether to buy a 6230CD model or a 5300ce. We bought a G3. After that, we bought a G4 or a G5. The rest became so much easier to understand--- 500Mhz vs Dual 500Mhz or 1Ghz or 1.5 Ghz or 2 Ghz, etc. As model names got simpler, the architecture became more powerful. That's just what consumers needed.

Even as legit lawsuits were waged against Napster with no end in sight back in 1999, we saw the first iPods appear by 2001. For all the controversy stemming from Napster regarding what consumers were willing to not pay for, there's something few have really talked about which I feel was something Jobs saw happening: people bought iPods in droves and paid dearly for them. It wasn't that people weren't willing to pay. Jobs understood the gaps in the general lifestyle. The Walkman fed the cassette tape market, but the cassette tape was pretty much dead at the time. There was still room for the Walkman concept, so the iPod was born.

... then the iPhone, then the iPad and all the other iToys. Even during a recession, people lined up for blocks trying to get their hands on the next $500 Apple device. Call the people crazy, but it takes an extraordinary amount of excitement for people to be THAT excited about spending money they don't have.

I don't know what's going on with the Zune platform, but Blackberry is about to release some sort of music file network/player of their own soon. There are a lot of Blackberry users out there, and having a native music player makes a lot of sense. It took them a decade, but the success and staying power of the iPod makes it makes sense for Blackberry. Why? Because someone understood what people needed or wanted.

Thing is-- Blackberry hardware is already in place. There's no need to buy anything new for their new music service, whereas Apple pulled the iPod out of thin air at a time when its function had been sorely overlooked.

[bayswater]

I don't know what's going on with the Zune platform,

It disappeared in March. The messages were vague, something about the software living on in other devices. Maybe it will turn up in the Windows phone.

[Frodo]

It disappeared in March.

Another one bites the dust!

Yikes-- I just learned what Zune spells in Hebrew.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

iGiveUp

[Frodo]

iGiveUp

It's a term probably best left for e-mail... or google.

[mhschmieder]

This is an urban legend.

I did some researching, and came across this:

"As a Hebrew speaker, Zune did not even cross my mind as ****, because it needs to be pronounced differently. The author of the article should have done a little more research."

I'm not linking to the referenced article, as it is less obtuse about the word in question.