HP in the Palm of Your Hand

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Posted on April 30, 2010 by Don Sheppard Posted as Past Post Archives

Ok.  Where did all the BlogIdollers that comment on smartphone announcements get to?  I can’t believe I am the first to post on this topic!  I read it in CNET News on the 28th – two whole days ago.

There’s lots of questions aren’t there?  $1.2 Billion for a company many thought was fading out gradually.  Why would HP make this move?  Is HP beeting the business on mobility?  Do they believe they had to be in the smart phone business?  Do they want the expertise of the people working for Palm?

One article says that Palm invented the PDA, so I guess there’s experience and wisdon and patents (1,650 of them, according to the article) that can help HP.  Todd Bradley (EVP of HP’s Personal Systems Group) said “Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team”.  That should help HP to compete in the iPad and other mobile markets.  Palm’s WebOS that may prove useful and is an alternative to Microsoft.

In the Globe and Mail Report on Business, on Thursday,  they also pointed out that predictions suggest that mobile usage of the Internet will surpass wired connections by 2013 or 2014.   You can’t really ignore a market of 2 billion smartphones!!  Will integration across smartphones, slates/pads, laptops, desktops and cartops (new word?) prove to be a winning strategy?

So, in terms of “crossing the chasm“  we already have gorillas and lots of other players.  Can HP become a gorilla of one or more of the wireless device markets?  Does HP have some new ideas, a paradigm shift if you want to call it that, in their back pocket?   It seems that, these days, you can’t just chase the market – you have to be an innovator with deep pockets.

Only time will tell!   Will you be buying an HP slate, smartphone, etc. or do you already have brand loyalty (read crackberry addiction?) to whatever you have now?  I know I do.

Don Sheppard Don Sheppard (86 Posts)

I'm a Blogging Idol enthusiast who also does consulting for a living. I began my career as a railway data communications engineer. After working for a bank for 7 years, I took up the consulting challenge and I still find it challenging! I try to keep in touch with a lot of different I&IT topics but I'm usually working in areas that involve service management and procurement. I'm back into ISO standards development - in the area of cloud computing (ISO JTC1/SC38). I'm starting to get more interested in networking history, so I guess I'm starting to look backwards as well as forwards! My homepage is http://www.concon.com


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  • http://twitter.com/chrispycrunch Chris Lau

    I’ve done extensive research in PALM and the other smartphone makers. What was determined at the time was that PALM was not worth anything. Even during the last contest, the value of PALM when it was discussed was great only by perception – only by ads. Problem is, the ads were very poorly done.

    Cash flow for PALM has been negative since the Pre launch. R&D expenses are high and customer acquisition is far too low. PALM’s problem was that it relied on just ONE carrier: Sprint. Sprint is not a good carrier!

    Palm was able to survive all this time because it had investors who gave the company money regardless of weak sales.

    Speculation on the HP+Palm would be a good read. Can HP revive Palm? Will Palm ever be profitable?

  • http://whyhire.me/ron_van_holst Ron Van Holst

    I think we’re only at the beginning of the smartphone wave. Although RIM invented this market, the mind share prize goes to a well known computer company who built a new smartphone. I think many people’s computational requirements will shift from computers to smartphones, and perhaps this is what HP is thinking. HP also invests in technology in order to sell more of it’s products. Maybe they’ll bundle printers with Palm Pre’s, do a smooth integration, and make more money on ink. Maybe they see a lot of cloud based services delivered to smart phones that they can direct to HP servers.

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  • Don Sheppard

    Good comments…..bundling, especially if the items being bundled are seamlessly integrated, sounds like a play, and cloud devices also seem like a good potential. I guess you can also say that no one spends $1.2B without a purpose in mind and a future goal in mind.