“Last summer, Hewlett-Packard Co. found itself in an awkward position for a premier computer company: It hadn’t fielded a single candidate in the fast-growing market of digital music players. HP had gone through numerous music player designs and had built several prototypes to show to focus groups. But people kept saying they preferred the celebrated iPod from Apple Computer Inc. Tom Anderson, HP’s vice president of marketing for consumer PCs, couldn’t say he was surprised,” Terril Yue Jones reports for The Los Angeles Times.
“The self-proclaimed gadget freak had snapped up an iPod soon after Apple introduced the sleek white devices in October 2001, loading it with classical music and tunes from the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. He knew the iPod was the gold standard,” Jones reports. “‘Apple did everything right,’ Anderson said. Everything HP did, he added, ‘looked like a compromise.’
“So HP switched gears. It dropped an industry bombshell at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month when it announced it would sell the iPod under the HP brand name,” Jones reports. “For Apple, a niche player in PCs with little more than 3 percent of the global market, the partnership opens a promising new sales channel for a device that at this point claims 62 percent of the worldwide market for hard-drive-based music players, according to market researcher IDC. Apple says its iTunes Music Store has sold more than 30 million songs, giving it a 70 percent share of the legitimate music-downloading market.”
“Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Jobs in 1976 and knows him well, said there was probably one mental hurdle Jobs had to clear to initiate the partnership with HP–the fear of alienating the Apple faithful, who mistrust companies allied with Microsoft,” Jones reports. “‘Sometimes things are going on in the Windows world that take the world a step backward for the sake of expedient profits,’ Wozniak said. ‘But bringing the expediency of iPods to the Windows world benefits both PC users and Apple.'”
Full article here.
Simply put, the most important thing to me is that I don’t out live the Mac OS, and not who Apple’s working with�though, I do consider HP the worst among all Wintel companies, I wish it were Sony or something.
I personally am all for the HP alliance. Give windoze users a taste of using a product made to just work and not make YOU work at making it work.
If this works out well who knows where things could go from here.
Man, it sounds like I’ve got work on the mind, doesn’t it
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I’m really suprised that HP agreed to this. If their customers get the impression that a company they trust is endorsing Apple, how long will it be until they’re all using Macs? If Apple would let people lease computers for 60 days, and during that 60 days send out an Apple e-news letter with helpfull hints, every single person that rented would buy one.
The iPod… the most devious and effective Trojan Horse device ever created.
Soon – WE WILL OWN THE WORLD!
…and, Oh yeah… I agree wholeheartedly with Alec. I’ve converted 6 family and friends in the last year. All they did was see my OSx operating system… and see me happily computing away while viruses and downloads slowed their Windows boxes to mush.
Apple should coordinate a “Show Your Friends Your Mac” day.
Erosion
can be as tiny as a single drop
or
as gentle as the wind.
All you need is…
…patience.
Rick, that can be arranged. You can pay now – the going rate is $6k – and set a stop-loss order that should Apple’s stock drop below a certain point, you will be terminated before the Mac OS is.
It’s actually quite a popular program. One guy stipulated that he be holding his mouse in his “cold, dead fingers.” The windows-using ME had to pry it out.
I agree with the rental program. I hated macs until i used one and now i will never stop using one
And isn’t Woz 100% right? Sometimes all it takes is for people to get a glimpse of how things ought to be, and they reject what they have suffered with.
Aryugaetu:
That’s all I need on a Saturday evening, fsckin’ philosophy when what I really want is an orphaned 25-year old Swedish blonde heiress who happens to be Jewish and is looking for a cuddly father figure.
MCCFR: Something gotta give…
I just bought the brand new book:
Apple Chronicles 2.0
Anyone who is interested in Apple’s founding all the way up to the iPod and iTunes – get this. I have only read 2 chapters, but it is so interesting.
Highly recommeded!
I can’t see why anyone would feel alienated.
Everybody knows that HP will be selling a re-badged iPod. It’s simply a way of selling more of them. Die-hard Apple fans should see it as a huge boost for Apple. HP acknowledge that the iPod is the best player, that iTMS is the best music store and that they want to join the party.
What Apple now needs to do is to get manufacturers of low-end players to support AAC and FairPlay so that iTMS is the perfect solution to a wider range of customers.
Until that starts happening, Windows orientated music stores will have an in-built commercial advantage.
What this HP deal signals to me is that Apple is trying hard to become less dependent on hardware sales alone to bring in the dollars. Once Apple can make large sums of money on things other than hardware, we may see a similar deal with someone like HP to start using OS X on PCs.
Dell is worst of the MS backers. HP used to be like Apple a long long time ago. Like Darth Vader, maybe they can be redeemed.
Buy Mikey Dell is the Sith Master. Jobs has to throw him into the reactor.
HP is a good Apple partner, they make good printers, and they dont really have to worry about losing purchasers to Apple since they can still sell them printers. Some people are so scared of trying anything else other that WinSin its unbelievable, I just switched and so many of my friends look at me like I finally lost my mind. Personally I wonder why I lasted so long on Windows, I love my Powerbook and Panther
^ Greatest user name ever. GO WINGS!