It's really a juggling act - Intel spin doctor
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INQUIRER readers are not impressed by HP changes
RESULTS FROM OUR LATEST POLL indicate that The INQUIRER's readers are not impressed by the changes HP has said it will be making to its business.
We asked, "HP has announced some major changes this week. Do you think HP's changes will pay off?" We gave you choices between two yes answers, two no answers and "it doesn't matter".
It seems that most of you think HP is being rather silly with its random strategy of late. However, the most popular answer, with 38 per cent of the vote was "It doesn't matter, Carly Fiorina trashed the 'HP way' years ago." So it seems that most of you think HP was already a shadow of its former stature anyway.
The second most popular answer with 28 per cent was a very sensible, "No, it's daft to exit the PC market that it dominates".
Saying this, HP is now denying having ever said it would quit its PC business, despite having said last week that it plans to spin it off or sell it. We'll leave you to work that one out.
Many of you thought HP should have given WebOS more of chance to succeed, rather than just dumping it after just one disappointing tablet launch. Not far behind, with 21 per cent of the vote was, "No, it didn't give WebOS a chance and is ceding the growing smartphone and tablet markets."
Meanwhile, a few of you thought that what HP announced was actually sensible and should be credited. While eight per cent answered, "Yes, WebOS failed and its PC business is low margin", five per cent of you said, "Yes, there's more profit in high margin enterprise software."
So our poll suggests that HP wasn't wise to announce these changes. Perhaps the firm will change its mind again, now that it has managed to flog all of those embarrassingly unsold Touchpads at fire sale prices and lose a couple of hundred million dollars in the process. µ
Tags: Hardware
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HP's aggressive sell-out pricing of the TouchPad had one interesting side effect.
It showed clearly that there is significant demand for a lower-priced full feature tablet, regardless of the OS that it runs. Anyone paying attention to that will likely be trying to figure out a product and marketing model that could respond to this demand.
What makes this lucrative is the relatively small delta between the magic $99 price point and the cost of producing these units in high volume. If someone were to bridge the gap with innovative partnering and volume commitments, the results would be a new paradigm entirely.
There is a saying that you You Reap What You Sow and I believe HP over the next few days are going to regret selling the touchpads at such a stupid low price to get rid of them. The backlash has already started from those unable to get one. People have already start facebook pages boycotting HP.