[papazoo]

... what a very disappointing thing to hear. If HP isn't committed to WebOS, I gotta move on to Android. What a stupid thing for him to say

[donm527]

because they probably figure they cant compete in the smartphone arena...

seriously...

do you see the tens of millions of phones Apple sells?
do you see the the tens of millions of Android phones being sold and arguably overtaking number of iphone sales?
do you think HP can come in and make a dent in the smartphone industry being this far behind?

2 millions ipads in 2 months! how many pres sold in one year?

apple has made 'tablet' the hot ticket... everyone is making a tablet.
the stragedy is that the tablet market is still in it's infancy even though apple has a rocket start and analysts are predicting selling a gazillion by end of year. hp can still jump in and make a better run for it than in smartphone.

simple as that.

But why? WHy would they go back to their roots? No one wants a pda anymore. Thats why the smartPHONE business is growing as fast as it is. People want ONE device that does most of their tasks. Ipad, etc are luxury items. All I need and want is a Laptop for my research, etc. and a phone that can handle my tasks, calendar, email, casual web browsing, causal banking, etc, and you know, make phone calls.

Why would anybody today want to carry around a PDA, Smartphone, Tablet, and Laptop?

[nimer55]

I doubt they are going to stop making phones, I think what they where trying to say is this: We didn't spend 1.2 dollars to buy a companies, then spend more money to get into the smartphone business. What we did is spend 1.2 billion to have a platform we can call our own. Use it across table its, printers, and cellphones, so users don't have to keep learning new os's...


I think what he meant to say (and i expect some clarification soon), is that the smartphone business alone wasn't worth 1.2 billion to hp. But when you have that, and all these other markets, it makes it one heck of a deal.


Although i still consider this bad news.. Cause apple, and google are strong, and microsofts making it's way into the market again, And is going for consumers this time. Meanwhile the business end of things has been monopolized by a company with an unfriendly outdated operating system. If hp spend resources giving web-os the needed features, then it could easily gain business share. Then have a program like itunes letting users, and families use one bough app on multiple devices. So you start getting what apple has with itunes, and it's the dominos effect. One person in the family gets it, so the rest get it to. With business, and consumer smartphones, tablets, printers, and god knows what it would start spreading pretty quickly.

But ignoring the smartphone market wouldn't make sense, cause the whole point of this deal is to get people using one os.. Why wouldn't they let them use that one os on phones to?

[franky_402]

sad to say but i will miss webos greatly, but the evo is the exact specs i wanted in a webos phone, so i guess im going to jump to android i mean if there are no new phones i cant stay that long, i get bored with a single device about once a year and need something to bring the spark back. i was really hoping for a new palm phone that would really help the speed issues.

[russraff32]

This is the same fella who 6-12 months back was saying HP is not in the smartphone game, and is planning to "leapfrog" the industry by focusing on the Tablet scene.

Well, jolly well done, Sir! A definite captain of industry... miss the mark on your Slate, give the market to Apple, AND screw over your investors who just plunked down $1.5B (yes, Sir - the "B" word) for Palm.

I actually used to think he was quite smart!

The WebOS "Connected Appliance" play was a given, but why slag Palm's mainstay to-date.

I really do hope it was simply an unplanned outburst, but I am having my doubts about how much longer I'll be Palm'ing!

[milominderbinde]

Everybody fire this guy an email. Go to google and type in "HP CEO". Its takes you to his email. Let him know how we feel!

Here's the link to send HP CEO Mark Hurd an email:

HP Executive Team: Mark Hurd email

Let's get everyone to send him an email. Here's mine:

What were you thinking?

You don't even own Palm yet and you just told the press:

'We didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business'

You could have kept selling Palm Pre's and Palm Pixi's.

Why didn't you just say, "Would all Palm owners please buy an HTC EVO on Friday?"

Oh, I guess you pretty much did...

- Craig

[TopTongueBarry]

Everybody send Mark Hurd an email. Go to google and type in "HP CEO". Its takes you to his email. Let him know how we feel!

Reminder: attract bees with honey ....... ie; it's not a good idea to let your emotions about hearing this news cause you to write words that may not help further the WebOS cause .....

[donm527]

well, you should put this post back in the pre section so that they can read your post and email hp since this is about the fate of the phone.

EDIT... And let me make this clear that this comment above is NOT A COMPLAINT TOWARDS ANY MODS IN ANY FORUMS BUT JUST A SUGGESTION! So please no more infraction points

Here's the link to send HP CEO Mark Hurd an email:

HP Executive Team: Mark Hurd email

Let's get everyone to send him an email. Here's mine:



- Craig

[HelloNNNewman]

Guys... all I can tell you is - don't jump ship yet. This quote doesn't mean HP isn't going to stay in the smartphone market. It doesn't mean the CEO did a great job of phrasing things either... Because of the synergy between mobile systems and home/work devices (lighting, security, storage access, etc..) it simply doesn't make sense for them to dump the smartphone category and concentrate on everything that operates around that 'hub' (hub=smartphone and OS that can connect remotely to all these new devices).

The quote from the CEO doesn't say they are dumping the whole smartphone category where they already have a foothold... he's just saying that this single category isn't going to be where their focus will be for sole profitability. They aren't putting all their eggs in the single basket (mobile phones), but investing heavily to branch out webOS and take it where Palm said they wanted it to eventually evolve.

The Palm smartphone isn't going away (IMHO)... is simply isn't going to be their sole electronics line to concentrate on. As I said... the mobile platform is WAY too important to HP because it ties in everything they want to do with all their other electronics.

[jbg7474]

I think everyone is taking this way beyond what it means. Some facts:
1. HP is already in the smartphone business, albeit minimally, even without Palm
2. Palm is not going to stop selling smartphones in July--they JUST launched on AT&T--so they will be even more in the smartphone business after acquiring Palm
3. He was speaking about the motivation for spending the money on Palm (and to get to BillionS, he is also considering future investment in Palm) NOT their future roadmap necessarily.

So, he could not have meant that they are not going to be in the smartphone business, because they already are. He definitely did mean that the prize they were going for in the acquisition was not the smartphone business. But that's not to say that they aren't going to be continuing the smartphone business. He just didn't say that. And it doesn't make sense. The easiest way for them to begin to get a return on their investment in Palm and webOS is smartphones because so much has been done already.

This was a statement that was made to compare the relative size of the potential business in other stuff as compared to the potential business in smartphones. They see smartphones as a stepping stone to something much bigger, and it's that potential that they are investing in.

[intellidryad]

HP killed the Jordana, and gave the iPaq a slow death
Now they are trying to give Palm phones the last stab

What is it that makes HP hate PDA/smartphones so much?

I wonder if Palm's board can vote out and try getting more VC funding instead? (I seem to remember their agreement with HP was that they can't try to sell themselves to other companies even if the acquisition didn't went through)

[rlee2001]

@ HelloNNNewman

Exactly. I've never seen so much Pre-mature overreaction. Sheesh. Worded inelligantly (perhaps), but hardly a declaration of abandonment.

I am far more disheartened by the community's reaction than the actual comments.

[malpha]

Guys... all I can tell you is - don't jump ship yet. .

Well I can't jump ship yet, I've got three months to go, plus there isn't anything out there I want. The EVO is simply too big and with Android, anything else is going to take three months to get the latest OS.

[Mikey47]

Pres are going to be buried by HP....time to find some new smartphone os other than RIM, iPhone, and Android.

I bet Palm already had the Pre2 in development, I wonder how many of you would like to go in with me and buy it from HP once the acquisition is complete? Perhaps a movement to build webOS smartphones in a garage is in the making...

[nimer55]

What he was trying to say is this:

We didn't spend 1.2 billion dollars with the hope of recouping that cost through phone sales. We spend 1.2 billion dollars to get webos, a platform build on the web. Allowing to work on multiple devices, and over time removing the learning curve required when buying a new hp product. Consumers will enjoying using one os on multiple devices. What makes this deal worth it for hp, is that we will ship this os on multiple devices, from phones, and tablets, to printers..


(i hope)

If i'm right you'll hear something in the next 72 hours..

[milominderbinde]

I am not saying to jump ship.

I am saying that everyone should send en email to Mark Hurd the HP CEO asking what he was thinking. We need HP to quickly start backpedling on this. We all need to send an email. Here's mine.

What were you thinking?

You don't even own Palm yet and you just told the press:

'We didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business[/URL]'

You could have kept selling Palm Pre's and Palm Pixi's.

Why didn't you just say, "Would all Palm owners please buy an HTC EVO on Friday?"

Oh, I guess you pretty much did...

- Craig

[Garrett92C]

Well, nothing has really been confirmed yet. We shouldn't all be jumping to conclusions to quickly.

[iTz Nicholas72]

All I can say is that WebOS fans have a very interesting few months coming up...

[donm527]

maybe ceo's might not like getting a ton of emails giving suggestions... just a thought.

AT&T warns customer that emailing the CEO will result in a cease and desist letter -- Engadget

I am not saying to jump ship.

I am saying that everyone should send en email to Mark Hurd the HP CEO asking what he was thinking. We need HP to quickly start backpedling on this. We all need to send an email. Here's mine.



- Craig

[milominderbinde]

maybe ceo's might not like getting a ton of emails giving suggestions... just a thought.

AT&T warns customer that emailing the CEO will result in a cease and desist letter -- Engadget

The article says that it was for sending more than one email to At&T. I sent one email.

- Criag