HP Kills TouchPad, Could Spin Off PC Business

[btarunr]

PC major HP announced its decision to scrap TouchPad, the company's flagship tablet device. But in a move that could rattle the OEM industry, there are feelers that HP might spin off its PC business. This is similar to what IBM did with its PC division, resulting in the subsequent creation of Lenovo. This move could take effect as early as by the end of this year. This is one of the most extreme makeovers in the company's 72-year history. It is sought to increase the company's long-term competitiveness against rival IBM.

It is not known if the decision to spin off the PC division will affect any of the 300,000 jobs HP maintains worldwide. HP's PC division (that sells desktop PCs, notebooks, and netbooks and related support services), is its biggest revenue generator, but also it's least profitable division. Whatever the reasoning behind this, the decision is a 180 degree turn from last decade, when HP spent no less than US $24 billion to acquire Compaq Computer, on its road to become the biggest PC vendor.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[NC37]

Well they built cheap again after they worked to improve that. I've been dealing with a friend's HP for months. Keeps overheating. Keys on the keyboard pop out randomly. Then when going to clean it out, they used flimsy heatpads for the GPU/NB and a single heatpipe. Just terribly shotty construction once you got into it. Wouldn't label them all that if I hadn't heard the same from other HP owners. Something always seems to break on them.

 

[Fourstaff]

They are also acquiring Autonomy pending to regulatory approval.

 

[Red_Machine]

IBM, anyone? There server business is still going strong, as is their printer business. I see this as a corporate refocusing of efforts.

I always hated HP machines anyway. A damn nightmare to work on, unlike Dells.

 

[gaximodo]

IBM, anyone? There server business is still going strong, as is their printer business. I see this as a corporate refocusing of efforts.

I always hated HP machines anyway. A damn nightmare to work on, unlike Dells.

LoL?

 

[Fourstaff]

LoL?

Huh? Elaborate? I agree with everything what Red Machine says, but I cannot see how its funny or sarcastic.

 

[pr0n Inspector]

There's no money in consumer-grade computers. It's a saturated commodity market.

 

[Grings]

The only recent HP pc i have worked on had an oem asus matx board (775, with a core 2 6300), a regular ATX psu, and an easy to replace CPU cooler, and was therefore a lot easier to work on than Dells of the same generation.

 

[Red_Machine]

Yes, but to remove the hard drive of an HP machine, you've got to remove the front panel, unscrew the card reader, unscrew the hard drive and then slide it out the front. Dells you just unscrew the hard drive and take out out from the main bay. No faffing around.

 

[AMDfur]

If HP shuts down it's computer business, it also kills AMD in the same move. HP is by far the largest consumer of AMD chips, so this will shake things up pretty bad. We're looking at monopoly for the blue team, and who the heck will benefit from this except the greedy economy department @ Intel?

 

[Fourstaff]

If HP shuts down it's computer business, it also kills AMD in the same move. HP is by far the largest consumer of AMD chips, so this will shake things up pretty bad. We're looking at monopoly for the blue team, and who the heck will benefit from this except the greedy economy department @ Intel?

They are not going to shut down their computer making business, just selling it off

I dont blame them for providing more Intel based systems, only at the absolute cheapest rung AMD consistently outperform against Intel in price/perf. The rest is very price dependent, with AMD losing their advantage the higher it goes.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

oh boy. and ive just purchased a HP DM1-3200SA time to worry about the warranty

 

[faramir]

Yes, but to remove the hard drive of an HP machine, you've got to remove the front panel, unscrew the card reader, unscrew the hard drive and then slide it out the front. Dells you just unscrew the hard drive and take out out from the main bay. No faffing around.

Huh ? The most recent HP machine I've been tinkering with (one of the business desktop models, the "DC7900 CMT") had two HDD bay mounted sideways at the bottom of the enclosure.

In order to remove a drive you'd have to remove the side panel of the enclosure, release the plastic latch, unplug the data and power cables and slide the drive out. It couldn't have been any easier, this is how most modern enclosures place HDDs.

Now HP's model names leave something to be desired

 

[makwy2]

Somehow I doubt they actually do spinoff their PC business very far. They remain a giant in consumer PC's. I feel like the TouchPad's problem (and webOS in general) was a lack of patience in cultivating a community of support and listening to input from consumers. Sometimes you gotta stick it through at the beginning to build a consistent base! Also, how many complaints did they get about the tiny buttons on the PalmPre (1 &2)? Thousands at least. Guess what kind of keys are on the Veer4G? The EXACT SAME KIND!

 

[Red_Machine]

Huh ? The most recent HP machine I've been tinkering with (one of the business desktop models, the "DC7900 CMT") had two HDD bay mounted sideways at the bottom of the enclosure.

In order to remove a drive you'd have to remove the side panel of the enclosure, release the plastic latch, unplug the data and power cables and slide the drive out. It couldn't have been any easier, this is how most modern enclosures place HDDs.

Now HP's model names leave something to be desired

I only have experience of consumer models, maybe business models are different.

 

[erixx]

LOL, of course their cases differ bigtime! There are sub-500 home computers and then stepping up into the pro market. Each generation of cases differ, and for sure are made (thought) by different divisions. Just like printers, they make the best and... crap.

Anyway, if they stop or not making pc's, that does not change the DEMAND, thus, as a principle, AMD should not lose sales, but only a big customer. Other customers will crow proportionally.

 

[Phxprovost]

I cant really see this happening, it made sense for IBM to do it because IBM still had the business side locked down along with all the R&D and custom jobs they do for companies. HP on the other hand is mostly know for pc's ....so what are they thinking here?

 

[Red_Machine]

I'm going to quote myself here, because I answered your question in my first post:

Their server business is still going strong, as is their printer business. I see this as a corporate refocusing of efforts.

 

[Ravenas]

Why didn't you include the option to choose: "Apple killed off the HP Touchpad because they are dominating the tablet market."




EDIT: Not only did the iPad and iPad wannabes kill it off, but there are so many tablets out there is no room for development anymore.

 

[btarunr]

Many Thanks to TheMailMan78 for the tip.

 

[yogurt_21]

the only way this makes sense is if they have a buyer lined up who's willing to pay more than the pc branch is making them.

if that's the case then why not, in networking, servers, and printers/scanners HP is still doing quite well.

 

[1c3d0g]

Think about it, though. With HP gone, or at least spun-off (which produces uncertainty for some time), the other makers (Dell, Acer etc.) have a ton of market share to gain, IF they move wisely.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Think about it, though. With HP gone, or at least spun-off (which produces uncertainty for some time), the other makers (Dell, Acer etc.) have a ton of market share to gain, IF they move wisely.

Correct.

And thats what makes me think that HP wont do it.

having been established for so long, they have a HUGE market share.

and it has to be making them pretty good money otherwise they would have scaled back their operations years and years ago. but they have just carried on growing and growing over the years.

-------

When i walk to a shop called PCWorld here in the UK. the first thing that i notice is that HP machines make up about 80-90% of the machines on display (excluding laptops and pads) the rest are Acer or Dell's and the occasional Alienware.

no matter what branch i walk into thats always the case.

they could spinoff, but only if someone paid them a serious amount of money

 

[Red_Machine]

having been established for so long, they have a HUGE market share.

They are the world number one in that regard.

 

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

I hope so I wouldn't buy another HP ever.