HP creates new consumer tablet division led by Nokia’s ex-MeeGo boss Alberto Torres

“We’ve just been tipped to a memo circulated internally by HP’s Todd Bradley — who runs the company’s recently-merged Printing and Personal Systems Group — announcing the creating of a new Mobility business unit underneath him that will be responsible for ‘consumer tablets’ and ‘additional segments and categories where we believe we can offer differentiated value to our customers,'” Chris Ziegler reports for The Verge.

“Running the new Mobility unit will be Alberto Torres, who departed Nokia after running its MeeGo operations — operations that were doomed once it became clear that CEO Stephen Elop would be taking the company down the Windows Phone path,” Ziegler reports.

MacDailyNews Take: In all of its primrose glory.

Ziegler reports, “He’ll be reporting directly to Bradley and starting in early September.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Note: Via The Verge, Bradley’s memo verbatim:

As the world’s largest PC and printing business, we make it matter for hundreds of millions of people each and every day. Today we are taking an important step to serve even more customers in new and exciting ways.

I am pleased to announce that we are creating a team dedicated to delivering the best mobility solutions in the industry. With this move, we are building on our commitment to re-invest in mobility via dedicated leadership, focused research and development, amazing new products and a growing suite of applications and services.

Our new Mobility Global Business Unit initially will focus on consumer tablets and will expand to additional segments and categories where we believe we can offer differentiated value to our customers. Our existing notebook teams, including our soon-to-be launched commercial tablet, will remain within the PC GBU under James Mouton at this time.

To lead the Mobility GBU, I am thrilled to announce that we have recruited a proven executive from the mobile-device industry. Alberto Torres, who most recently oversaw the MeeGo products and platform at Nokia as Executive Vice President, will join HP as Senior Vice President of Mobility, reporting to me.

I am excited to have Alberto join us. During his seven years at Nokia, he held a variety of critical leadership positions, including two years on the company’s Executive Board. In earlier roles at Nokia, Alberto ran the company’s premium brand, its accessory and CDMA businesses and corporate strategy. Prior to Nokia, he was a partner at McKinsey and Company, where he worked with industry leaders in mobile devices, consumer technologies, software and Internet services. A Ph.D in computer science from Stanford University, Alberto currently holds vice chairman roles with the firms Bang & Olufsen and Opera Software.

Alberto’s first order of business will be to accelerate our tablet strategy and begin to execute products against our consumer/SMB target. The exact structure of his team will follow that strategy.

Alberto’s start date will be September 3. Please join me in welcoming Alberto to HP and in supporting him and his team in their important work.

Regards,

Todd

19 Comments

  1. Interesting…. So webos gets spun off to Gram and the HP Slate that was previously axed is back?
    Will the new HP-tablets be of the same quality as HP laptops?
    Will they run WebOS or Windows 8? (or Android!)
    Perhaps they will buy Rim and remarket the Playbook – Just like they did with Palm…
    The possibilities are endless…. but the outcome will be the same… too ilittle, too lame

    1. Unfortunately, the corrporate definition of “differentiated value” is “ordure; excrement; waste.”

      I wish he had had the cajones to say, outright, “We believe we can go head-to-head with Apple’s industry-leading products, particularly lately, as it seems their famous qualities of imagination, creative marketing, technical innovation, and ease of use all have deteriorated since the passing of the great Steve Jobs.”

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