So what happens when you drop a couple of billion dollars on a fledgling smartphone operating system, make a couple of phones and a tablet with it and then fire sale the lot? Well if your name’s HP you might realise you made a little mistake!
For HP, a company that specialises in computers, they need to make sure they utilise their brand recognition in other markets. HP’s CEO Meg Whitman realises this and today she’s said that HP is planning to release a new smartphone as an entry level device in emerging markets. She told Fox Business news that “We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device”. She made sure not to specify when the phone would be available and she made explicitly clear this one wouldn’t be a rush-job.
“We are working on this. In the end, I would love to be able to provide all the way from the most fabulous workstations … to desktops, to laptops, to our tablets and convertibles, all the way to the smartphone. But we did take a detour into smartphone, and we’ve gotta get it right this time. So my mantra to the team is “better right, than faster than we should be there” so we’re working to make sure that, when we do this, it will be the right thing for HP and we will be successful.
My view is we have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device. There will be countries around the world where people may never own a tablet or a PC or a desktop, they will do everything on a smartphone, we are a computing company we have to take advantage of that form-factor” Meg Whitman, CEO, HP
The main conundrum here is what OS the phone will run; will the company make the most of their Open WebOS platform, that they’ve been busy open-sourcing, or will the fall back on Microsoft and run Windows Phone? On a personal level I hope it’s the former!
What do you guys think? Is it worth HP giving it another go? WebOS or Windows Phone? Let us know in the comments below!
Via ZDNet.
HP are really quite clueless… We all remember their tablet debacle, so why will their venture into the ‘phone market be any different. As a consumer, you’d have to be brave or stupid to buy one of these phones, especially if they go down the WebOS route….