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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

#71

Post by arethuza »

allertonm wrote: post #24
webfuel wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I tend to agree with anigbrowl. While there are some overlapping products, those things are a tiny fraction of what SAP sells and far from their core business (I used to work for SAP Business Objects.)

Don't know why you are being downvoted - I'm mystified as to why people think there would be much overlap between what SAP does and what Autonomy does.

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#72

Post by iand »

rimantas wrote: post #12
iand wrote: post #7

He's never heard of Autonomy so therefore assumes it's similar to SAP? Hmmm.

Why do you assume he assumes instead of doing some little research?

I'm quoting him: "Autonomy — a company I’d never heard of before but which more or less sounds like a rival to SAP."

That indicates he didn't do much research. Another thing that indicates lack of research is that his comparison of Autonomy to SAP is wrong.

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#74

Post by IgorPartola »

teyc wrote: post #66
palish wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait --- what? They fired Hurd as a direct consequence of him paying a hooker. What's that got to do with strategy? Or are we claiming that it's "okay to lie" about why someone is being fired..?

Hurd didn't pay a hooker. At worst he was having an affair with a events organiser. With full hindsight, I'd say the board wanted Hurd and consumer business out.

Some references:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/hp-chief-mark-hurd-...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hurd#Resignation

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#75

Post by iand »

masklinn wrote: post #53
nivertech wrote: post #43

"Autonomy — a company I’d never heard of before" Autonomy is a leader in their field

Which is very small and hard to see, especially for one Gruber which does not work as a corporate drone

Text classification and analysis isn't a small field. Plus this is a public company that's been in the FTSE for years (i.e. one of the top 100 companies in the UK)

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#76

Post by nutjob123 »

teyc wrote: post #68
lukifer wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What killed the TouchPad more than anything was lack of differentiation. If they had been $400 from the start, they could have been "the iPad, but cheaper". They could have started with a 7-8" model. They could have targeted specific niche markets or verticals en masse, preloading them with use-case specific apps and selling thousands of units at a time to big orgs. As it is, the webOS is a brilliant OS which HP comp…

Actually, there are better places than trying to differentiate on price. Printing with the iPad is a prickly issue today. If HP were to even launch one printer that worked with the TouchPad, it would have been an opening salvo that Apple will have to scramble to catch up. Secondly, cameras represent the last bastion of consumer goods that hasn't been computerized the way a music player has been computerized. HP could…

its my understanding that the touchpad could actually print documents to a lot of HP printers

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#77

Post by ugh »

teyc wrote: post #68
lukifer wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What killed the TouchPad more than anything was lack of differentiation. If they had been $400 from the start, they could have been "the iPad, but cheaper". They could have started with a 7-8" model. They could have targeted specific niche markets or verticals en masse, preloading them with use-case specific apps and selling thousands of units at a time to big orgs. As it is, the webOS is a brilliant OS which HP comp…

Actually, there are better places than trying to differentiate on price. Printing with the iPad is a prickly issue today. If HP were to even launch one printer that worked with the TouchPad, it would have been an opening salvo that Apple will have to scramble to catch up. Secondly, cameras represent the last bastion of consumer goods that hasn't been computerized the way a music player has been computerized. HP could…

Huh? HP launched more than two dozen printers (or updated them) that work with the iPad. HP is, in fact, the only brand that has printers which work with the iPad. The TouchPad works more or less with the same printers, it doesn’t do any better than the iPad in that respect.

It doesn’t seem like the availability of printers makes a huge difference.

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#78

Post by wisty »

teyc wrote: post #66
palish wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait --- what? They fired Hurd as a direct consequence of him paying a hooker. What's that got to do with strategy? Or are we claiming that it's "okay to lie" about why someone is being fired..?

Hurd didn't pay a hooker. At worst he was having an affair with a events organiser. With full hindsight, I'd say the board wanted Hurd and consumer business out.

At worst, he used company funds to pay for his affair. That's a big no-no.

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#79

Post by teyc »

nutjob123 wrote: post #76
teyc wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, there are better places than trying to differentiate on price. Printing with the iPad is a prickly issue today. If HP were to even launch one printer that worked with the TouchPad, it would have been an opening salvo that Apple will have to scramble to catch up. Secondly, cameras represent the last bastion of consumer goods that hasn't been computerized the way a music player has been computerized. HP could…

its my understanding that the touchpad could actually print documents to a lot of HP printers

and they didn't bother to tell anyone about it?

Re: A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm

#80

Post by Gustomaximus »

cletus wrote: post #3

I 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…

> All PC makers are on razor thin margins...

I keep hearing this but then think I saved 30% by building my own PC so it doesn't ring true. Also I would expect HP to get parts at least 10-20% cheaper than a consumer increasing this margin. And the time assembling is not that much to warrant additional costs. Maybe because I have a high end rig there are some margins here... but in this context it feels like there are decent margins there to me.

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