“Consumer electronics industry analyst Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, said HP may want to make MP3 music players of its own — and reap greater financial return than they would receive as a manufacturer, rather than distributor of Apple’s products,” Dawn C. Chmielewski reports for The San Jose Mercury News.
“‘HP, even when they did this deal, was criticized that they were not innovating in their own way in this field,’ said Bajarin. ‘I think, from Mark Hurd’s position and HP’s condition, this decision came down to one of controlling their own destiny.’ Under terms of a non-compete clause, HP cannot make a music player to compete with the iPod until August 2006. HP would not comment on terms of the contract or future product plans,” Chmielewski reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, HP should go ahead and make their own MP3 players; everyone else is doing such a great job competing with iPod that we’re sure it’ll be a resounding success. Now, about that nearly 8% US market share of digital music players that the instantly-former #2-seller HP had with “Apple iPod by HP” products? They’ll probably never see that high a percentage of the music player market again. We’ve got at least 14,500 reasons why the iPod deal is the least of HP’s problems right now.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Report: Hewlett-Packard to stop reselling Apple iPods by September – July 29, 2005
HP adds ‘Apple iPod shuffle from HP’ to digital music player line – July 01, 2005
Hewlett-Packard adds ‘Apple iPod mini from HP’ to iPod digital music player lineup – June 02, 2005
Hewlett-Packard expands branded iPod lineup, announces ‘Apple iPod photo from HP’ models – April 12, 2005
Hewlett-Packard adds ‘iPod dock holder’ to latest Media Center desktop – March 31, 2005
What’s the point of continuing the ‘Apple iPod by HP’ deal? – March 30, 2005
Hewlett-Packard ousts CEO Carly Fiorina, and what was with that ‘Apple iPod by HP’ deal anyway? – February 09, 2005
Apple, Hewlett-Packard debut new iPod television commericals – August 30, 2004
Hewlett-Packard-branded Apple iPod to debut Friday – August 26, 2004
Why Hewlett-Packard took Apple’s iPod shortcut – February 02, 2004
