“HP’s European boss Eric Cador has used a press conference in Cannes to claim that his company’s forthcoming TouchPad will eventually become number one in tablets, emulating its success in the PC hardware market. HP has previously stated that it aims to ship over 100 million webOS devices,” Electronista reports. “He went so far as to suggest HP could be the leader by a wide margin, ousting Apple’s iPad from the market.”
Electronista reports, “In the PC world, with fewer ways of differentiating HP’s products from our competitors, we became number one,” Cador said. “In the tablet world we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus.”
MacDailyNews Take: Dude needs to lay off the peyote. The silly bastage left off the rest of his equation: “Number one plus” six original iPad models plus eighteen iPad 2 models equals twenty-five. And, #25 is by far the best case scenario for HP who are obviously drunk on delusions of grandeur mixed with approximately an ocean full of hubris.
Electronista reports, “’We tend to talk about technologies,’ he said. ‘But the way the user is going to look at tablets means it’s about experience. The way the corporate is going to look at it is to say that its employees, who are also consumers, have got to like it and it’s got to be secure. We’re going to deliver that. Beyond that, it’s about marketing and branding.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Translation: We’re relying on the IT doofuses to ram our HP-branded shit down the employees’ throats once again.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When we added this one, our iCal actually giggled in anticipation.
I just read the headline and I can’t stop laughing! 😆
Yes, both funny and delusional. I have never seen a webOS device. Will the TouchPad only work if it is connected to the Internet?
Will Eric Cador personally buy the 100 million TouchPads when HP can’t sell them or is he saying that they will only have to “ship” them? How did Microsoft get rid of the Zunes that they shipped? Maybe Steve Ballmer can recommend the same ship to address. (I have never seen a Zune anywhere either. Have you?)
“Number one plus” is already at least number two.
Assuming natural numbers anyway, yeah. Perhaps he was thinking in integers? 1 + -1 = 0. Yep, “HP – We’re a big fat 0” has got to be their next marketing campaign slogan.
And it smells like it.
… is release a single model that sells at least as well as the best-selling iPad – I’m guessing that will be an iPad2 by the time they release. That wouldn’t seem like such a difficult challenge. Maybe if they just offered the most rudimentary specs of #1 and cut the price in half?
Mine arrived today. Messed up the set-up and am now trying to get back to the “Find-Your-iPad” set-up.
Eric Cador’s career is on the line with his foot in mouth pronouncements (which I never recall Apple doing).
Hmmmmmm…. don’t know.
HP has been extraordinarily patient bringing their tablet to market.
Do they have a mature software?
Isn’t their developer a cross-over from Apple?
At any rate Apple ought never to rest on their laurels – I’m sure they wouldn’t.
MDN Nailed that one…
I can’t believe he said that!!
Can’t recall the quote or from which co-CEO, but RIM was saying some of the same incoherent things about its Playbook.
The difference between Apple and the rest is that I don’t ever recall Steve Jobs saying that Apple would be No. 1 at anything. Instead, he just introduces the product and then, when it actually is No. 1, he shares that with us at the proper time.
That’s what makes Jobs and Apple a class act that these idiots can’t never understand. Bragging gets you nowhere.
Apple delivers results. These idiots deliver nothing but hot air.
You know, to be fair, HP is well on its way. It wants to be number one. I just sniffed a Playbook and can definitively pronounce them to be number two right now.
If you sniffed number two, then you smelled the correct odor for this product!
BWA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
“it’s about marketing and branding…”
No, no it’s not.
Great product first, market it second.
FAIL
Good point, and the best way to go – great product PLUS great branding and marketing.
BUT, unfortunately, it often doesn’t work that way with buyers. There are many business sectors where the #1 products are, for example, #9 in sales.
Or worse, where the most popular product in a field is rubbish. (Not saying operating systems, or anything in particular.)
actualy, it’s not even “great product” first. It’s *users* first.
Apple make great products because their primary goal is user satisfaction. And then all else follows. Quality (of experience) before quantity of features.
When your goal is user satisfaction, the product and services have to be great.
Most other companies are only concerned about sales. Sales driven goals produce feature swamped products. Quantity rather than quality.
When your goal is sales, being #1, then sadly the user satisfaction is neglected.
I know how HP can do it…
Buy every iPad 1 out there, sell them at a loss for $100 or something. Rebrand them with hp’s logo. And deal with the lawsuit later…
Outside that…. Not gonna happen.
“MacDailyNews Take: When we added this one, our iCal actually giggled in anticipation.”
Brilliant.
At least we know theirs will be better than the Android tablets… So there is a plus
When you ggogle “touchpad” on safari it autofills “not working”.
Nice
Laughter is the best medicine. Everyone enjoy a few extra weeks of life-extension, compliments of HP.
Eric, how many times have I asked you not to drop acid on a school night?
There are some iCals MDN could post with this story. Who was it?, said they would take over the smartphone business as soon as the original iPhone contracts ran out. And then both Motorola and RIM said their sorry tablets would crush the iPad. They can say anything they want; but they don’t have the products to back it up.
Sweet dreams are made of these… But, likely more to become a nightmare for… HP itself!… So do i think!…
Gee – After the WebOS phone mashed the iPhone, I am really worried here!
(It seems I have heard this claim for WebOS before somewhere?) 😛
Roger McNamee (of Elevation Partners) said, exactly two years ago:
“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” McNamee said today in an interview in San Francisco. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
When asked about the release date and price of the Pre, McNamee said Sprint Nextel Corp., the phone’s exclusive carrier, probably will release the details soon.
“Think about it — If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market,” said McNamee, 52. “Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”
In all fairness, McNamee has later turned around and proclaimed that nobody can beat Apple and iPad.
It’s quite arrogant when a company talks about bringing down another company’s high-selling product with a product that isn’t even on the market. Even if they built a tablet with better hardware there’s still the difficulty in selling it. Consumers make their own choices and HP can’t guarantee consumers will buy the TouchPad
Apple iPad sales is all about the iOS ecosystem which includes apps and iTunes content and the TouchPad has none of that. So it doesn’t matter if HP can build TouchPads by the millions. Consumers still have to buy them. I could understand if HP licensed WebOS to other companies but as it is, there’s no way HP is going to dethrone the iPad in a couple of year’s time on its own.
What the heck? Ok, amateur hour is just BEGINNING, apparently.
RE: HP claims TouchPad will oust Apple iPad, become #1 tablet on market”
REPLY: HP may sell more tablet units than Apple, but it will have razor-thin profits!
That’s it in a nutshell. The same thing happened when Compaq delivered the first IBM-compatible computer. They sucked all the air out of the room.
HP’s strategy? Offer cheap tablets running a “good enough” OS and make it up in volume. If anyone can absorb the costs HP can.
I had a lot of respect for HP, once, but that was years ago back when I was in college when Mr William Hewlett was still alive (he died in 2001 before I graduated). Over the years I’ve been using HP products on and off but noticed the decline in quality post Compaq merger. I also encountered surly and unfriendly HP support staff and help frontdesk when I brought my laptop and PDA/phone (running Windows Mobile 6) for repair. I put up with it thinking there was no better alternative when Apple Stores that were within driving distance started opening up everywhere and I could go to have a look for myself what a Mac was all about.
I admit that the early Macs left me in an ambivalent attitude as I felt that switching would be too expensive and OS X wasn’t that much better than Windows XP. But my love for HP products was starting to wane due primarily to the extreme penny pinching attitude HP took to their customers first by withholding effective technical support and then by successively downgrading the quality of their product.
At some point this last few years Apple’s value proposition grew to the extent that it was difficult to ignore. Apple stores were fun places to visit and so the first thing I did was to ditch that God awful miserable HP phone for an iPhone. That was the start of the Apple halo effect. Believe me when I say it’s real.
After about six months of using the iPhone I purchased the iPad, the first generation. It gave me similar feelings of joy and felt well built. More importantly Apple stood behind their products so I didn’t feel like a pinball being bounced between HP and Microsoft. Of course now I own a MBP, iPod touch, iPod nano, AirPort Express along with the iPhone and iPad. That’s the Apple ecosystem working for you.
As for HP, it has lost so much of its lustre that the TouchPad will be an exercise in futility as I believe much of the quality aspects will be missing due to HP’s bean counter approach to technology – cutting costs to the extent of cheapening the product. If the TouchPad is anything as badly designed as the Veer is, it’ll be curtains for HP in the tablet field.
Yep, Apple stands behind their products. My 4-yr old MacBook, had its battery replaced for free, because it had swelled. It was no longer under warranty. It was not under any special return program. The Genius looked at it, and said they would replace it. Just like that. 15mins total.
Very nice post and many can say that is their story …..
Mine started with networking at work but basically the same story …..
I am not much of first generation buyer but was with the iPad and now have iPad 2 ….. Grandkids have both mine and wives first generation iPad ……
Passing down our MacBooks and Mac Airs as well when next generation Air comes out …..
Nice post, BLN.
My career was in the telephone biz and all our cable and network test gear was HP all the way. Our boss even had a couple of HP-67s with custom programs on those mag strips that we needed several times a week. That sold me on HP calculators, an HP-25 being the first of several (I have a ten-year-old HP 32S that’s my workhorse in retirement).
All of those devices were absolutely unbeatable and rugged. No one beats the tar out of electronic test gear like an old telephone man.
I caught onto the Apple cart way back in ’78 before HP or any of the others got into the PC business, so I never worked with an HP device, being the lone Mac user in the office for ages.
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were geniuses and no one since Young has been able to do what they did. I think the BoD’s worst mistake was in hiring Carly instead of in-house Ann Livermore as CEO.
Now I understand your background and your mindset! It all makes sense now; you’re here because Ballmer’s wish finally came true!
heh, heh, heh
Dude needs to lay off the peyote. LOL
Eric: “Wow, the colors.. look at all the colors! Our TouchPad comes in sooooo many pretty colors!!”
HP Hack: “Psst Eric, it only comes in gray..”
WebOS seems to cause hallucinations. I recall similar “predictions” before Palm Pre was released.
Advice: Release the product first, before mouthing off.
Indeed. You’d think logic would dictate that HP have the product shipping before FUDing at Apple. What I suspect we have here (my usual rant) is Marketing-As-Management with a loud mouth braggart spewing rhetoric without even comprehending the product he’s talking about. I seriously doubt he even comprehends the target customer base. His blether-fest comes off as fetid salesman hot air.
Where have I heard chest-thumping like this in which on self-consumed entity bragged about their imminent success?
Oh, yeah. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev once famously exclaimed, “We will bury you!” Well… that didn’t work out.
While HP is banging its shoe on the tablet — attempting to predict the future, Apple is dominating the market.
Khrushchev’s national super power no longer exists. What will HP look like when their prognostications fail?
My, our age is showing isn’t it? I’m probably one of five people here that was old enough to remember it being shown on the nightly news. 🙂
Personally, I like the idea of lots of diffrent hardware manufactures making there own os (not just liscensing and fragmenting a different os (*coughan*cough*droid*cough**cough*)) so maybe the did do a good job.
as for hp being number one in the pc world? no, I don’t know if any of you guys have worked with an hp machine, but in my experience, there garbage. then again, maybe that’s just the norm for pcs… been forever since I bought one
None the less, it will be interesting to see how HP implements WebOS on a tablet. WebOS had some things going for it, and as mentioned above, HP has not rushed any half-baked items out so far since the acquisition. They conceivably have the talent to do something significant in this space. Lots of variables to consider, so we’ll have to wait and see. But that guy’s statement is simply stupid. Why set expectations so high? One of the keys to Apple success has been under-promise, over-deliver. No claim chowder (as John Gruber would say).
it’s like every damn ceo from ms,dell, samsung, rim etc, is suffering from the same delusion.
Oh-dear.
Someone should really do a swap-test for drugs on this guy.
Does anybody remember the HP-branded (or co-branded) iPods they sold for a while?
Maybe they should investigate that option once more.
One could almost fill a book with all the self-proclaimed “iPod-killers” that came and in most cases went away again over all those years and whose creators are now usually accessory suppliers in the i-devices after-market (if they’re not completely out of business).
The iPad has a realistic chance of repeating that success, but at an accelerated rate (if they can get production off, without blowing off factories….).
You’ll probably have to pay your dealer a couple of hundred bucks just to get rid of all the self-serving junk HP hardwires into their products. Someone I know bought an HP PC, and when he tried to get rid of all the promo s**t that came with the PC on his own, it just was impossible, he said. So he had to take the PC back to his dealer, cough up a heavy sum, and only then did he finally get a “clean” PC. I’m sure the DouchePad will also be loaded with stuff HP insists you must have, but which you just don’t want.
Just saw a honey wagon go by with a sign on the back that said, “Caution, Hauling HP TouchPads”
Sorry HP but Gartner is already predicting that Windows Phone 7 will overtake everyone by 2015. You were not even in the running! 😉
(just kidding)
i’ve stated many times (going back to before the Palm buyout) that webOS was the only real competitor to iOS. If Palm had greater resources we wouldn’t be seeing that many Android products.
Maybe not as great as Apple’s at the moment, but HP does have high brand awareness among consumers and corporate buyers. Dissing HP’s potential is akin to sticking your head in the sand.
Gregg, how many times have I asked you not to drop acid on a school night?
I agree Gregg.
In view of the fact that the touchpad still hasnʻt shipped, I think that Eric Cador and HP are confusing vapor with the cloud.
The last HP product that was worth buying was the rebranded iPod.
Why do most of Apple’s competitors all sound the same?… Is Ballmer their role model?
This is called “You bet your Job”…. Hope this clown-boy has got a back-up plan…
ah, HP c’mon it’s not April 1st…
Have mercy with this guy, he’s French.
While I, like MDN, doesn’t believe this, here unlike in the PC market, HP has control of the OS… So, we shall see…
Exactly! Time and time again we’ve seen it, those who deliver products in which they control both the hardware and the software do well in the tech market.
Playstation, XBox, Apple, RIM, Nintendo, and now we’ll see HP enter the tablet market with a decent OS and hardware fitted to match. I expect to finally see some competition against iPad. That, is a good thing.
“When we added this one, our iCal actually giggled in anticipation.” Great take, MDN ! GREAT TAKE !
Eric Cador;
“HP will be double plus good!”
DouchePad ?
HP bought Palm
this is what Palm announced with the Palm Pre:
“June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
Uh, Oh! I think Palm’s stupidity in predictions has infected HP DNA now.
For those who might still remember, HP actually sold the iPod. Yep. HP-branded iPod. They could not even make a success of that! Carly eventually pulled it.
And now they plan to make their own knock off and “brand” that! What planet do they live on? If they had the iPad itself, they would nit be able to market that. They have already proven that!
HP guy is seriously injured in the head!
One Acronym… DOA
HPQ has the size and resources to give AAPL a run for their money. Plus they have the ONLY OS, other than iOS, that isn’t a train wreck. That’s the reality of the situation. Android is margin killer just like Windows before it.
Guys, guys, give the man a little credit. He is not that far off, you know.
With a little luck, they can very well pull off the task of selling 1+ units of the HPad
HP do make good stuff. I’ve never bought any, and never will. But, apparently (according to their boss), they do make good stuff. Good luck to them. I’m sure there are people buying PCs. I’ll stick to Apple products. They work.
You can’t help but chuckle at these CEOs, their only concern is “beating Apple.” That’s all they’re out for; beating Apple because they sell a truckload of products and make an even bigger truckload of money. How is Apple able to do that? Because they put the user experience first, and people love their stuff. Their products are intuitive, clean and work. Make a solid product that works, then maybe you’ll be able to sniff the air up on top.
I’m so glad developers will find it easy to port their apps over to webOS and the TouchPad. Now more people get excited about the new barcode scanner or police band scanner they bought for free that’s harvesting their user information and shipping of to servers in China, or, worse yet… Google’s servers. I’m sure HP will continue on with their method of making “appealing” products by adding stupid graphics to the housing and hoping schmoes will continue to buy it.
Laugh all you want people. Just because Apple invented the ideas and has a great product doesn’t mean someone can’t come along and do it better eventually. Its ignorant and naive to believe that. What, no one else can innovate ? That’s a joke !
I’m not saying HP will do it but I don’t for a second believe that Apple’s reign will last forever.
I remember the day when Sony was highly innovative and ahead of the competition in their product lines. They were the most esteemed high-end / high-tech company with rabid devoted customers. Look where they are now. Yes it can happen to Apple.
@ivid You’re right, but based on HP’s track record and history it’s highly unlikely
That’s how I feel as well. The majority of people on this board are just taking yet another opportunity to blindly posture like cheerleaders, typical talking points, dragged out every time someone throws down the gauntlet. Very few are original and most are predictable.
I want competition. Jobs needs competition! What reason does he have to live for if he starts thinking I should just give up now, because no one will ever catch me. Let me check out now knowing I beat them all.
BULLSHIT!!!
If anyone can match Apple’s prowess, it’s HP. It’s been stated a couple of times already and there is no ignoring the fact that HP waited before wading into the commercial tablet market. I have no doubt they have been polishing WebOS and building a tablet around it.
Apple does pretty much the same thing. They take a core piece of software and build the hardware around it, from the ground up and just as any vertical market offering has proven in the past, the more control you have of the overall experience the more likely you’ll be successful.
Why should we doubt HP now? Because of Pre? Yeah, right, like Apple has never brain-farted before.
HP’s only problem right now is containing their glee. They probably know they have a hit on their hands and are giddy about it. One thing is for certain, if HP succeeds, everyone of Apple’s competitors will steal the formula and milk it to death.
Soon the market will be flooded with Apple alternatives and most Americans, who are totally price conscious will see their only choice lay among the alternatives available at Target and Walmart. They’ll forsake the hoity-toity-little-finger brand that is Apple.
How will Apple react? How will many of you react? So many of you are in denial. You’re playing a zero-sum game where there can only be one winner and how many times have we been down this road before. We’re the sick fucks who whittle everything down to a choice of two and find it laughable there was ever a number Three.
There is never room for a number Three, or Four not here in America. We only want the best and we’ll begrudgingly settle for a number two because it’s slightly cheaper.
Bring it on HP! Give Jobs a wake up call. Convince him his work on earth is not done and that he must start planning for the next insanely great thing.