Whitman: "it's not obvious exactly what to do here"

[Mutoidi]

Originally Posted by Maverickz

Leo was too busy promoting Leo. He was one of the most narcissistic people I have ever seen. He joined HP and put his picture everywhere, all over the internal web sites, on the walls up and down nearly every hall. Many employees were beginning to worry they might even be forced to get a tattoo of Leo's face.

Called 'Ego' isn't it? Or inferiority complex.. or something!

[gbp]

Originally Posted by CGK

In a market that moves as fast as mobility, vagueness communicates quite a lot of things... none of them are good.

True,
but this meeting was not for us "the commoners" or for "the analysts", it was internal talk.

A failed asset which was decided to be thrown out in August was still sitting with HP in mid November. In addition, they still don't know what to do with the whole thing tells me that they are having second thoughts about dumping it.

For me it looks like they will keep it, probably release another gadget next year.

[fred1955]

Originally Posted by gbp

True,
but this meeting was not for us "the commoners" or for "the analysts", it was internal talk.

A failed asset which was decided to be thrown out in August was still sitting with HP in mid November. In addition, they still don't know what to do with the whole thing tells me that they are having second thoughts about dumping it.

For me it looks like they will keep it, probably release another gadget next year.

I truly hope HP decides to keep webOS and somehow either resumes hardware operations by bringing back the hardware engineers that Leo fired, or just license webOS to a hardware manufacturer.

I still use my Sprint Pre minus that is in excellent condition, and will continue to use it until another webOS phone device returns. Peace.

[MDsmartphone]

as much as I personally like the form factor of the pre series of phones, with the touchscreen and slide out keyboard, there is a stagnant and ugly stigma attached to the original pre by those who purchased the original pre and pre plus, and the tech bloggers. Except for the pixi, all the other phones are the same form factor.

That means, since 2008, palm's
hardware team, which hp inherited, has lacked creativity to make any other form factors. Perhaps then a change in the hardware team was needed. Again, to me the pre form factor is OUTSTANDING and I am not looking forward to the day of purchasing a slab phone without a vertical keyboard...but to the consumer market, it hasn't sold well. The hardware team did not execute well.

hopefully, hp puts their foot back into webos, and hires a new hardware team or contracts with another company to make their mobile hardware.

[brendu]

Originally Posted by MDsmartphone

Perhaps then a change in the hardware team was needed. Again, to me the pre form factor is OUTSTANDING and I am not looking forward to the day of purchasing a slab phone without a vertical keyboard...but to the consumer market, it hasn't sold well. The hardware team did not execute well.

I agree that the previous hardware team sucked (even though I am a fan of the pre form factor). Perhaps it was their severely limited resources until HP bought Palm and we never did get to see the true fruit of their labor but I don't think HP would suffer from bringing in a completely new hardware team to take a fresh look at webOS and create a great new product lineup based off the system.

[CGK]

Originally Posted by gbp

True,
but this meeting was not for us "the commoners" or for "the analysts", it was internal talk.

it's irrelevant who it was actually for - it's the action not the means of communication that is problematical. Even as an internal communication, it's take as a sign by potential rivals and partners. Every move by a CEO has organisational and political ramifications.

[bluenote]

I'm Ok to wait a little bit (not too long!) to see the new business plan. As a competitor, I'd feel more afraid of a CEO who thinks things through and does long-range planning than a company who willy-nilly changes course here and there.

[geewhiz]

Originally Posted by brendu

I agree that the previous hardware team sucked (even though I am a fan of the pre form factor). Perhaps it was their severely limited resources until HP bought Palm and we never did get to see the true fruit of their labor but I don't think HP would suffer from bringing in a completely new hardware team to take a fresh look at webOS and create a great new product lineup based off the system.

That is a BIG assumption as the original Palm HW team clearly was directed to keep hw costs low so they could make a large profit to keep Palm going. The HP HW team should be judged by the Pre 3 which is a great competitive phone. They should have layed off the product marketing people because they never really picked a market - consumer or business. A physical keyboard is very popular with business users, not so much for general consumer types who are more interested in the large screens. They tried to be too much for too many types of users. The hardware folks did what they were asked to do and did it pretty well, in my opinion, for the constaints they had. If they had swapped the Veer and the Pre 3, we would be looking at a completely different situation ...

[Maverickz]

Originally Posted by bluenote

As a competitor, I'd feel more afraid of a CEO who thinks things through and does long-range planning than a company who willy-nilly changes course here and there.

This is exactly how Toyota and Honda hurt the US car companies so badly. They both had 20 year plans, and only made slight adjustments to those plans as needed. While the US companies basically re-planned every year for the longest time. Ford was the first to wise up and come up with a longer range plan and that is why they were the only US car company that did not need a bailout.

Back to the mobile world, you can bet your **** that Apple has a long range plan mapped out and they have a very strong foothold in the market. The only way HP is going to become a player is with webOS is to have a long range strategy that can leverage their strengths from other areas to boost market penetration and cover short term losses.

So while I don't think this meeting was necessary by any means, I do like the fact that Meg is not just reacting, but is looking at long term strategies. That is exactly what she should be doing.

[samab]

The most technophobic investor, Warren Buffett, just announced that he bought 5.5% of IBM. That's where the money is --- IT services.

[gbp]

Originally Posted by geewhiz

That is a BIG assumption as the original Palm HW team clearly was directed to keep hw costs low so they could make a large profit to keep Palm going. The HP HW team should be judged by the Pre 3 which is a great competitive phone. They should have layed off the product marketing people because they never really picked a market - consumer or business. A physical keyboard is very popular with business users, not so much for general consumer types who are more interested in the large screens. They tried to be too much for too many types of users. The hardware folks did what they were asked to do and did it pretty well, in my opinion, for the constaints they had. If they had swapped the Veer and the Pre 3, we would be looking at a completely different situation ...

+1
yup, the hardware engineers are not dumb. Its not rocket science to make a phone. The main issue was Palm was behind schedule combined with failed marketing. Pre3 should have been introduced before Veer on all three carriers.

[chalx]

Originally Posted by samab

The most technophobic investor, Warren Buffett, just announced that he bought 5.5% of IBM. That's where the money is --- IT services.

That's right, and Leo was not wrong. He made PR slip, and hysteric approach to whole reorganization. Also, this whole thing with PSG is rushed, but in general, he was not wrong.

[gbp]

Originally Posted by chalx

That's right, and Leo was not wrong. He made PR slip, and hysteric approach to whole reorganization. Also, this whole thing with PSG is rushed, but in general, he was not wrong.

True,
But here is the difference, HP is no IBM. Just like it takes time to excel in mobile market it takes long time to become the next IBM.

I keep laughing at folks who says money is in services a decade late. The current day IBM took shape two decades ago.

Read this and you know why.

Just as HP failed at mobile market they will fail at services too (with the exception of some profits from that EDS division).

Leo had neither vision nor skills to run HP. He is just a clueless clown who landed a new job in a well known circus. Luckily the circus is still going on while the Clown got kicked out.

[pogeypre]

Could you imagine what would happen to HP stock if they ever were certain about anything?

Imagine all the great events in history through HP's goofy colored glasses...

"That's one small step for man........ ahhhhhh.... screw mankind... let's go home"

[gbp]

Originally Posted by pogeypre

Could you imagine what would happen to HP stock if they ever were certain about anything?

Imagine all the great events in history through HP's goofy colored glasses...

"That's one small step for man........ ahhhhhh.... screw mankind... let's go home"

well they did not take a small step to interview the CEO before hiring him :-)

[bluenote]

HP has apparently hired Russell Research to distribute a survey to certain HP TouchPad owners (front page precentral story here http://www.precentral.net/hp-probing...celled-product.

A look at various pages on Russell Research's website yields the following description of the types of research they do:

Anybody can get you data. Russell Research offers the experience and imagination that allows us to deliver actionable information to feed your creative business processes. We pride ourselves on being able to bring focus to even the most complex, data saturated issues.

We do not have a “typical” project. Our clients rely on us for smart research solutions that are tailored to solve their specific issues: unreasonable time frames, relentless work pace, dynamic markets that demand new approaches.

Product Testing

Russell Research's Product Testing responds to a full array of product testing objectives and concerns, including:

New Product Development & Guidance
Product Improvement/Optimization
Line Optimization
Line Extension
Cost Savings/Cost Reductions
Competitive Bench & Assessment

[Maverickz]

I took the survey. It seemed some of the questions were geared toward making a decision to keep making TP or not. Some were geared toward if they kept the TP should they keep webOS or not. Others seemed to be designed to help decide what improvements to make should they decide to keep it.

The bottom line is this seemed like it was trying to gather data to help make the decisions, instead of any sort of confirmation that a decision has been made and them trying to move forward. This also leads me to believe that no decision will be made until the survey ends, and the data is compiled and reviewed.

[bluenote]

CRN story yesterday about HP debuting ultrabooks with win7 is saying it is geared towards consumers and enterprise while the slate2 running win7 is for enterprise.
Meanwhile digitimes is running a story that upstream suppliers believe hardware makers will cut back on tablets because they can't compete with the cheaper kindles/nooks of the world, hard to say whether their "belief" is coming from pronouncements from the vendors themselves or just logical conjecture from what the suppliers see:

http://www.crn.com/news/client-devic...used-folio.htm

http://www.crn.com/news/client-devic...ed-slate-2.htm



PC hardware players to phase out from tablet PC market in 2012
PC hardware players to phase out from tablet PC market in 2012
Latest news
Aaron Lee, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Thursday 17 November 2011]

Due to pure PC hardware players such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Acer, Asustek and Dell not having any advantages to compete in the tablet PC market, sources from upstream supply chain believe these players will gradually phase out from the market with players that have strong content support such as Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, to continue to compete through lowering their hardware prices.