A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
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A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
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Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#2I guess this is why the vision of the CEO matters so much to investors (think Jobs). But regardless, HP was in trouble. I wonder if they would have stayed in the hardware business even if Hurd had stayed on. Maybe WebOS was not long for the company regardless of who was at the helm; its unequivocal success notwithstanding, maybe it'd have been abandoned anyway.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#3I tend to agree with the basic reasoning but there's one thing I don't understand.
Why cancel the TouchPad? Why not just spin that out with the hardware business to Compaq (which is the idea, yes?)? It seems they've devalued that unit by killing WebOS.
All PC makers are on razor thin margins... apart from Apple. A post from yesterday [1] painted an interesting picture where Dell, through a series of seemingly rational decisions, essentially taught Asus the PC business, allowing the Taiwanese manufacturers to eat US PC makers for breakfast in later years.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#4I tend to agree with the basic reasoning but there's one thing I don't understand. Why cancel the TouchPad? Why not just spin that out with the hardware business to Compaq (which is the idea, yes?)? It seems they've devalued that unit by killing WebOS. All PC makers are on razor thin margins... apart from Apple. A post from yesterday [1] painted an interesting picture where Dell, through a series of seemingly rationa…
From the quotes that were gathered from HP's PR, it sounds like they weren't at all confident in the TouchPad's ability to turn profits in the coming years. Assuming they didn't withhold a bunch of evidence that led them to that opinion, they'd surely have had a tough time finding a buyer. It also doesn't inspire a lot of confidence if you're trying to spin off a product division after giving it only 49 days on the market.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#5Autonomy is nothing like SAP. What a ridiculous, empty post.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#6I tend to agree with the basic reasoning but there's one thing I don't understand. Why cancel the TouchPad? Why not just spin that out with the hardware business to Compaq (which is the idea, yes?)? It seems they've devalued that unit by killing WebOS. All PC makers are on razor thin margins... apart from Apple. A post from yesterday [1] painted an interesting picture where Dell, through a series of seemingly rationa…
From the quotes that were gathered from HP's PR, it sounds like they weren't at all confident in the TouchPad's ability to turn profits in the coming years. Assuming they didn't withhold a bunch of evidence that led them to that opinion, they'd surely have had a tough time finding a buyer. It also doesn't inspire a lot of confidence if you're trying to spin off a product division after giving it only 49 days on the m…
At a good enough price I'm sure they would have found a buyer. They got zero dollars for it now, so any sale prices seems better than what they did.
And if patents were the problem they could have required a cross licensing agreement with any buyer as a condition of sale.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#7He's never heard of Autonomy so therefore assumes it's similar to SAP? Hmmm.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#8WebOS was for Hurd just a fig leaf to make a future orientated impression, in reality were all the profits he made short term.
What HP needs now is focus and that is what Apotheker is doing. Some people are disappointed that it is not consumer orientated, but when you look at the "smart phone wars" this seems reasonable to me. HP can't compete with Google, Apple and Microsoft there. Look at Nokia and Blackberry.
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#9Autonomy is nothing like SAP. What a ridiculous, empty post.
On the wikipedia page for Autonomy Corporation, under competitors, you'll find SAP NetWeaver Enterprise Search plus SAP Business Objects Text Analysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_enterprise_search_vendo...
Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm
#10WebOS was for Hurd just a fig leaf to make a future orientated impression, in reality were all the profits he made short term. What HP needs now is focus and that is what Apotheker is doing. Some people are disappointed that it is not consumer orientated, but when you look at the "smart phone wars" this seems reasonable to me. HP can't compete with Google, Apple and Microsoft there. Look at Nokia and Blackberry.
That's an excellent point.
I'm actually curious to see now if we had this same discussion when Dell started to pull back on their consumer division. It's still there, but their business offerings seem to either have been given more attention, or for whatever market reasons have dwarfed Dell consumer.