Analysts Say HP's Decision To Stay Out of Smartphones Is a Good Move Discussion

[Andy Patrizio]

HP chief Meg Whitman said her company has no plans to enter the smartphone market in the coming year, apparently contradicting something she said earlier, but a decision also seen as a wise move.

Read the full content of this Article: Analysts Say HP's Decision To Stay Out of Smartphones Is a Good Move

Related Articles:

• HP May Be Considering Bringing Back the webOS
• BLOG: How HP Pulled the Rug Out from Under Palm
• Big Wins and Epic Fails in the 2011 Smartphone Market

[Hook]

Nice to see the HP decision making SOP Apotheker put in place is still functioning...

[LandSurveyor]

Then again, maybe it might be a good idea to not try to spread out into everything at once until they get their mess straightened out first. It would be better to concentrate on making first-rate tablets and PC's than mediocre everything. Or, at least, that's the way I would hope it plays out. Even that space has become confused enough. It seems that tablets and laptops represent opposite ends of a spectrum rather than simply discrete devices. I would like to see somebody produce a really good hybrid.

I agree the PC is not dead yet. I see tablets and other, more mobile devices as things that sacrifice all-around capability for portability. MS has not had great success in producing a full-blown PC/tablet combo.

I say let them re-group and maybe re-enter the smartphone market when things are stabilized IF they can find a niche there.

[Hook]

I wasn't actually criticizing the decision. I don't think it would make much sense for them because the only way to do it now is with either a lot of innovation (not HP's long suit) or a big pot full of money or both.

It was more the usual chaos of saying one thing and then another and showing a general level of having no idea where they are going.

[jigwashere]

Okay...I'm confused about what this means in relation to this article: HP May Be Considering Bringing Back the webOS. Is this decision just about hardware, or are they abandoning the WebOS again? Are they hiring WebOS engineers and continuing down that path? HP still looks unstable to me and if I were a WebOS engineer, I'd have second thoughts.

[Adama D. Brown]

Okay...I'm confused about what this means in relation to this article: HP May Be Considering Bringing Back the webOS. Is this decision just about hardware, or are they abandoning the WebOS again? Are they hiring WebOS engineers and continuing down that path? HP still looks unstable to me and if I were a WebOS engineer, I'd have second thoughts.

It's hard to say anything for sure when there's no actual communication from HP on the subject--by necessity, anything else is speculation. However, the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive: HP could be planning, say, a webOS tablet. Which, assuming that you're building WiFi-only, is admittedly a lot simpler than doing a smartphone. And it's also something that, unlike smartphones, HP doesn't have a track record of screwing up. The Touchpad wasn't a bad tablet when it was released, it was just much too expensive and lacked software support.

[LandSurveyor]

I agree. I like this TP for the measly hundred I spent on it, but for 500 bucks, I would be disappointed with anything less than at least a light laptop's capabilities.

I certainly hope HP isn't going rudderless again. I can ignore the smartphone bobble. Maybe the corporate thinktank realized it wasn't practical at this time. But re-hiring WebOS personnel is more concrete. I hope they know what they're doing. If they don't differentiate HP in some way, the brand will be just another of many pc and tablet manufacturers.

[jigwashere]

Is it possible HP is developing WebOS to license it to smartphone a manufacturer(s)?

[Hook]

Is it possible HP is developing WebOS to license it to smartphone a manufacturer(s)?

That would mean changing their minds about it being open source. If I had to guess, I'm thinking they have gone back to an idea they had when they first bought Palm-- using WebOS as the OS for their smart printers and other office automation. Basically, developing it as an embedded OS.

[jigwashere]

ADB mentioned tablets. Maybe it would work in a smaller, PDA-type device, too. I guess we'll have to wait and see.