HP and Palm: How To Waste a Billion Dollars

[spoofedpacket]

Wow, another ignorant article with most of its facts completely wrong. Did you just paraphrase someone else's inaccurate and negative commentary without checking any facts whatsoever?

Or.. is this some kind of crybaby fanboy thing where you have some favorite company and it happens to be in competition with Palm/HP?

 

[keegandoomfire]

"Can a non-existent brand revive a dead brand?" - If its nonexistent why in my hick town (under 2000) is there over 10 people I'v personaly seen with WebOS phones?

I honestly agree with spoofedpacket, your looking at this in horribly negative tones. HP has expresed no interest in the current phones instead they what to stick WebOS on everything they make LINK Hp is most likely looking not only to use Palm and WebOS as a springboard into the phone market but also to use WebOS on a tablet device.

Its not about the 1.2 billion its about the 5-10-100billion they can make. You failed to do any research and as a result 3/4 of your article is opinion only.

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]keegandoomfire[/nom]"If its(sic) nonexistent why in my hick town (under 2000) is(sic) there over 10 people I'v(sic) personaly(sic) seen with WebOS phones?"[/citation]
Do you have any other anecdotal evidence to contribute?

 

[omnimodis78]

"Let’s be realistic. Today’s smart phone market is being divided between Apple and Google, with Nokia and RIM figuring out who will be third." ummm come again? Have you seen what the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Germans, French, Italians, etc etc etc are crazy about? You should have done more research for this story, and certainly should have been clear exactly which 'market' you're refering to.

 

[keegandoomfire]

[[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]Do you have any other anecdotal evidence to contribute?[/citation]
yeah, stop being nonconstructive and contribute yourself... If you don't have something to add then please don't troll.

With palm launching on ATT soon we will have one more Carrier with WebOS phones, And as omnimodis pointed out WebOS has been very popular in open-minded countrys.

 

[belardo]

Palm... will pretty much die inside the HP Collective.

Voodoo is very much dead. Check out the site, nothing new since last fall with "discontinued" products with vista, core2. Click on community... nothin. news, out dated. Not even "sorry, we're dead" page. Oh well, they got paid.

Even HP's own voodoo site... dead" http://www.hp.com/voodoodna

What is left, is the HP Envy which is based off the voodoo design.

 

[jenesuispasbavard]

Nokia, third? Haha is all I'll say.

 

[wintermint]

This better not be the reason why Slate is getting scrapped

 

[Guest]

This is a very lazily written article that's tough to take seriously.

There are a number of very noticeable grammar mistakes in the first couple of paragraphs, and all the "arguments," presented are wishy-washy and, again, lazy.

To quote but one example, "even HTC reportedly wouldn't buy Palm." Why is the word "even," in that sentence? Is the author trying to imply HTC are so desperate they should have jumped at the chance? And even if that were true, which it clearly isn't, why should that matter if the discussion's about the strategies behind the acquisition?

Clearly this writer had a very limited approach to this article and it's easy to see how poorly written and constructed this "argument," was going to be early on. Continuing with the article, the points given either didn't make sense (perhaps due to the poor grammar in places) or badly thought out, or both.

This is a lazy, dull, insipid, terribly researched and poorly written article.

 

[kartu]

What, on earth, are you talking about???

Let’s be realistic. Today’s smart phone market is being divided between Apple and Google, with Nokia and RIM figuring out who will be third.

Nokia sells MORE smartphones in one QUARTAL, than Apple sells in one YEAR.

 

[Nexus52085]

[citation][nom]duckmanx88[/nom]do people not understand this is a tech site which has international readers that like to stay on topic about the article. go off topic somewhere else.[/citation]
I totally understand where you're coming from. However, have you noticed that there is a COMPLETELY different list of comments for each language you choose? I find it incredibly bizarre. I just discovered this about a month ago.

 

[kelemvor4]

[citation][nom]Nexus52085[/nom]I totally understand where you're coming from. However, have you noticed that there is a COMPLETELY different list of comments for each language you choose? I find it incredibly bizarre. I just discovered this about a month ago.[/citation]
Since the article was way sub par for a THG article I'll participate in the more interesting off topic discussions like everyone else. I think it's fine there's separate comments by language. I can't read Chinese or Hindi anyway.

 

[eddieroolz]

Not sure if this can be called a waste of $1.2billion, but the patent portfolio is very well worth the cash, I think.

On a sidenote, I did not enjoy the Pre at all, even though I tried it out. Too plasticky, cramped keyboard and small screen.

 

[Kryan]

whilst not agreeing that HP made QUITE so big of a blunder, I would like to thank Wolfgang Gruener for another awesome article. If these keep coming, I am one happy reader

(not that I mind most of Jane's articles...I just slyly avoid them -NOT because she writes badly, but because her content is...abysmal...at best- MOST of the time)

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]jenesuispasbavard[/nom]Nokia, third? Haha is all I'll say.[/citation]
Nokia and Sony Erikson (or how it's spelled) account for something I would estimate at 80% of all phone sales in denmark - not unlikely they'd be third in the smartphone marked. Due to pricing of the htc models (the only real alternative) you can truely only pick a nokia phone, or a samsung with nokia os, if you need more than just a phone with a camera and mp3 player in it (sony phones)

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Btw I like how the article ends by explaining who the heck wrote it. Should be applied to all articles by 'guest writers'

 

[oldscotch]

"Today’s smart phone market is being divided between Apple and Google, with Nokia and RIM figuring out who will be third."

Citation Please.

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/comScore_Reports_January_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

According to each link of the first page of a search, RIM is still way ahead in first place, Microsoft is a solid third and Nokia isn't even showing up.

 

[eccentric909]

Why is Tom's posting articles from people who haven't done a single bit of research or fact checking? (This only applies to the US)
http://assets.bizjournals.com/story_image/850021-0-0-1.jpg

Apple actually lost a tiny bit of the Smartphone market share in February. While nothing of significance, it completely undermine's the author's point.

While Apple gained again in March, their current gains are nothing compared to Google's, nor does Blackberry show any decline from being #1, with a small, but steady increase in their share:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/comScore_Reports_January_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

If we want to go with Wiki's info (which has also been confirmed within other articles found on the web):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone

Symbian is by far and away the #1 Smartphone.

What is this guy smoking and why are we posting his articles on Tom's Hardware, if he can't even be bothered to take 2 minutes to research what he's saying? It took me less than 5 minutes to find all of the information above. Disappointing. This one is even worse than his "Games coming to Macs, whether you like it or not" tripe.

 

[momomiester]

You don't get it do you. It is about using the operating system on an Ipad type device. Remember the Pre is a multi-tasking monster and the I-pig pad can't really do more than one thing at one time. Do they pull it off? Who knows but I would love to see a HP styled palm OS pad soon.

 

[gabrieldiego]

When I was 13, I owned a second hand Palm IIIxe, and I think that it still is one of the best e-book reader ever made, besides the PDA functions it had. It had 8Mb of memory that was erased after the 2 AAA batteries ran out (that would take 1 month anyway), but come on, that was the available technology of the end 90's. The screen couldn't display images very well, 11 screens made a page of a book in iSilo and I couldn't read pdf files, but the lcd screen was much more confortable than the one I find in my current Samsung Galaxy. Of course that Amazon Kindle has some improvements (4Gb of memory, 3G and an unnecessary big screen), but also has drawbacks like the price tag of $300 and short battery duration (that is not AAA). If the old Palm III had evoluted, we could have today an excellent PDA/e-book reader for less than $80 that would fit in your pocket.

 

[gogogadgetliver]

I think the executives at HP just *might* be smarter than the author here.

 

[kansur0]

FAIL. I think the problem is that HP has never really stood out as a brand that sells anything but printers. Yes...they have been making workstations but that is a relatively small market. As soon as I see an HP computer I think "Compaq" and "proprietary".

Now picture an HP logo on a phone. Really? and the Palm OS on the phone to boot? I think the smarter move is for them to use the patents and completely kill the Palm OS. I just don't see how much they could have improved any of it. I used to own the Palm Treo. It worked but man was I glad to get rid of it for an iPhone. I never blinked once. To me that spells disaster for HP. The Palm experience is easily forgetable. It should stay forgotten!!!

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]kansur0[/nom]FAIL. I think the problem is that HP has never really stood out as a brand that sells anything but printers. Yes...they have been making workstations but that is a relatively small market. As soon as I see an HP computer I think "Compaq" and "proprietary".Now picture an HP logo on a phone. Really? and the Palm OS on the phone to boot? I think the smarter move is for them to use the patents and completely kill the Palm OS. I just don't see how much they could have improved any of it. I used to own the Palm Treo. It worked but man was I glad to get rid of it for an iPhone. I never blinked once. To me that spells disaster for HP. The Palm experience is easily forgetable. It should stay forgotten!!![/citation]

True claim if by workstation you mean those 'workstation' branded computers. But they're delivering very many compaq lowend systems for places like this where I work. Just last year we bought almost 500 cheap intel dualcore systems with 4gb ram and onsite support ($500 per system)

HP is only recognized for printers and laptops, but they're making most anything computer related really. I'm sitting with a 24" hp monitor here. The best monitor I've ever seen in fact. And most of our servers are hp as well. They've got a marvelous blade system for bigger businesses, and smaller pizza servers for smaller businesses. And hp makes a lot of nice cheap digital cameras as well as a ton of other stuff. They're just not known for it.

 

[Guest]

"kansur0
FAIL. I think the problem is that HP has never really stood out as a brand that sells anything but printers. Yes...they have been making workstations but that is a relatively small market. As soon as I see an HP computer I think "Compaq" and "proprietary".

Now picture an HP logo on a phone. Really? and the Palm OS on the phone to boot? I think the smarter move is for them to use the patents and completely kill the Palm OS. I just don't see how much they could have improved any of it. I used to own the Palm Treo. It worked but man was I glad to get rid of it for an iPhone. I never blinked once. To me that spells disaster for HP. The Palm experience is easily forgetable. It should stay forgotten!!!"

not spent much time in the corporate world have you, to say workstation is a small market is like saying the Atlantic is just a small pond, the reason why RIM has such a commanding lead is because of the corporate world, and unlike consumers, the corporate market has a guaranteed turn over, that is the corporate will always upgrade their machines to the newest and best, it also means every worker that requires one will get a workstation. HP is a strong brand in the corporate environment because their works stations are robust and reliable, if they can carry that over into a corporate smart-phone, then Mr Job's iPhone is just small fry. As for WebOS, well it's based upon linux, strangely enough the same platform that Android uses, but HP may have an advantage in that they have HPux, one of the best corporate implementation of unix, plug all that learning into WebOS and we could well see something geared towards the corporate environment that could threaten RIM's dominance. Once they stitched up the corporate market they could move on to the consumer one....

 

[wynand32]

What's held Palm back from greater success is money. Period. Money to develop webOS more quickly, money to push out new hardware iterations more quickly, money to promote more heavily. HP brings financial resources, along with distribution and manufacturing resources, that Palm could only dream of.

webOS is arguably the best mobile OS on the market, and even with Palm's struggles has some very, very good apps available. The Pre and Pixi, while getting a little old in the tooth, have been very good devices that are a joy to use. Put webOS on a higher end device (coming), bring it up-to-speed (coming), and put it on a few tablet formats (according to HP, coming), along with HP's strength in cloud computing and with some of their own media and other IP that's been sitting on shelves, and I think folks will be surprised at just how well HP Palm does over the next few years.

I suggest that anyone who doubts this acquisition spend a little time actually using a webOS device, and then come back and tell us if you agree with this article.