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The challenge for companies like HP is this: As profits from one line/market begin to slow,investors attempt to reign in spending to protect profits. Shareholders also get jittery about any sort of direction that involves risk. So risk and spending are halted. Meanwhile while the current market shrinks, new markets are expanding at a huge rate. Companies who got into the new market early or had deeper pockets to enter the market suck up the lion's share, making it even more costly and more risky for new entrants. Without significant investment and determination on the part of the shareholders, a company cannot and will not enter the market. Shareholders may pressure a company to get into the market, but then limit how much they can spend to get there. Limiting the spending reduces the likelihood that they can get in and stay in the market. We already saw that with webOS under Palm and HP.
We're also seeing something similar with RIM; They rushed to market thinking that they had time to gain customers AND refine their product, and they didn't. Now as the shareholders begin to squeeze them to retain profits, they are headed down the same death spiral as Palm.
Until Meg Whitman or someone within HP can convince the board and the shareholders that they need to spend big (billions) and stick to it (3-5 year effort) then they will continue to see their PC market erode and with it printer sales and enterprise business services. It's really a race to the bottom if they don't take on some big risks and make some significant investment in R&D and new product lines.
Mobile will largely consume the PC market over the next few years. It's time for HP, Samsung, Nokia, Sony and others to step up, lobby to eliminate carrier lock-in, and start driving some big innovations in the mobile space. Right now they're using the PC way of marketing: Same old product, New packaging. That's why when you get a new laptop it seems all shiny at first, but then after a week it feels just as old and slow as the old laptop. Phones are the same way right now: Samsung Galaxy S GIGIGI now with more G's.
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