Oxymoron of the day: Business Ethics
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HP dumps WebOS, picks up Autonomy, wants to sell its PC business
MAKER OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER INK HP went wild on the announcement front last night and revealed that it will buy enterprise search firm Autonomy, drop WebOS and look to sell off its PC business.
These announcements, we think, are so huge that HP should have hired a barge, bought a load of fireworks and travelled the waterways of the country shouting about them.
It did not though, and perhaps this was because these massive changes were always on the cards. HP CEO Leo Apotheker came from the German software firm SAP and might rather not deal with hardware, or unpredictable tablet software like WebOS, and be much more comfortable with boring, safe and high margin enterprise software.
In fact, in the conference call announcing these changes, Apotheker stamped his name on the decisions. "I am taking ownership for these decisions and investments," he said.
"Our TouchPad has not been gaining enough traction in the marketplace. We have made the difficult but necessary decision to shut down the WebOS hardware operations."
Although this bit of news makes HPs purchase of Palm for its smartphone and tablet designs look like a waste of money, the company presumably expects to get more bang for its buck from Autonomy, for which it will pay £7.1bn.
The intended shift out of HP's traditional PC business and the lurch away from competing in tablets and smartphones are acknowledgements of how much impact the latter has had on the former's sales. Apparently unable to compete profitably in either area, it seems that HP has decided to bow out gracefully.
"Today is about transforming HP for the future," Apotheker said. "The tablet effect is real... Continuing to execute our current device approach in the market space is no longer in the interest of HP."
Michael Dell, who we can imagine is also not 'in the interest of HP' greeted the news with a couple of stingers on his Twitter account.
"If HP spins off their PC business....maybe they will call it Compaq?", he said, and then, "HP.... They are calling it a separation but it feels like a divorce". µ
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NOT JUST THE CANADA HP JESTERS BUT ALSO MIGHTY JACK LAYTON HIMSELF (CANADA OPPOSITION - THE GUY WHO OPPOSES CANADA) HAS BEEN FELLED BY HP'S WEB OS BLUNDERS, MAY GOD REST HIS ALMIGHTY CANADIAN COMMUNIST SOUL.
THey should make WebOS open Source.
Actually, they should of never rebranded Palm stuff as HP. Palm as a name had more attention then HP Phones/tablets.
Palm should of never been dropped from the branding.
Palm has a long good history, and once should be proud to own that name, and it should be used wisely. Even Plam itself, when it sold its Palm OS off, wanted its name back.
Why is companies so arrogant, thinking they can rebrand products and make them better just to kill them off again? Palm was happy being a smaller company, and existing. And people were happy that Palm existed. So what right does HP have to kill Palm off just because it does not make high enough margin?
Exiting a market in dangerous, because once your out, your out. People tend to forget and move on. So its better to keep something alive.
So if HP stops operations in Palm/WebOS, at least they should make it Open Source, because Palm/WebOS is too good to die. THey could always license it out to other companies. Good things don't deserve to die.
HP has a lot of brand power and the ability to sell other things becuase it has a big martet share.
It is stupid for HP to sell of the PC buisness.
Also for WebOS, well its only been 1 month, and there is a lot of competition. Tablets are overpriced and people are out of Money. Also a few unlucky people invested $$$ into crappy ipod/iphone/icrap. So HP needs to market harder, Lat thing we need is for Apple to take over the market and have no competition. Apple is evil, and likes to sue all companies to push back technology so everyone will end up with their onebuttoness
I am sure the HP CEO is a crook, probably will profit off the sale of the PC division as well as get a fat bonous.
I wish HP left Palm as Palm, becuase I would rather have a Palm phone then iPhone (which I have now), and I am not a fan of crackberries. WebOS is a good OS. And its not owned by google which spys on you all the time. Also since google is buying motorola, companies that sell android may have some problems, so thats why we need WebOS to be in the market. Palm use to market their OS to other companies in the past. HP has a gold mine and they don't notice it.
I mean company. But it's really the same thing, all of America is being hollowed out by greed and stupidity, people who can't even hang onto what's been handed them. HP was begun by two guys deep into tech, grew into the world's premier scientific measurements company, then got into consumer electronics and has been going downhill ever since, run by MBAs who know only widgets not gadgetry, notably Carly Fiore (? I don't care to recall her name) who bought Compaq, stupidest decision ever.
Still a lot of ruin left in the company and country, though, much evil and stupidity yet to do.
If i just bought those Touchpad/Pre-2, I'll be very angry.
I smell class-action suit coming up...
On August 11th an email is sent to HP Canada Employees, the HP Canada Employee Purchase Program announces a 50% off "deal" on the newly released (less than a few weeks old) HP 32gb WIFI Touchpad. At the time I thought this was a great deal and was very happy to buy 2 of them at 249.99 each (my wife wanted one). I placed my order on August 12th and my order arrived on Wednesday August 17th. On August 18th HP announces it is killing the HP Touchpad. I feel it's more than just a coincidence that HP Canada's EPP announces this great deal on the HP Touchpad and 7 days later HP kills it. I think HP Canada's EPP should refund all monies to the HP Canada employees who got duped into buying these effectively useless tablets. I also think HP Canada's EPP should allow HP Canada Employees to keep the tablets as a goodwill jester. After all....They would be headed for the scrap heap anyways.
Regards,
Duped HP Canada Employee
HP has succeeded only where they have blatently ripped the consumer off. Sky high ink prices, faulty laptops that they refused to fix, non-existent customer support. Good riddence to bad rubbish, HPs heart hasn't been in this business in quite a long time. This is a good thing for the market.
That would be great. Atleast it will have a chance to survive...
HP CEO is an idiot, a big one.
And a greedy bastard.
I feel sorry for people that gave their money on TouchPads. Worthless piece of crap. And also I fell sorry for people buying Pavilions, worst laptops ever, I had dozens in service for overheating.