“Hewlett Packard knows it has a tough fight on its hands in the tablet and smartphone market, where Apple has raced out to a big lead on the strength of astonishing iOS developer momentum,” Kevin McLaughlin reports for CRN. “But HP insists its strong channel partner pedigree will make the WebOS development story a more compelling and profitable one than Apple’s.”
“HP is planning major investments in training partners to add WebOS development and mobility practices to their product mix,” McLaughlin reports. “Stephen DeWitt, senior vice president of HP’s Americas Solution Partners Organization, suggests that the level of partner commitment HP brings to bear is pretty much unheard of within Apple’s iOS development ecosystem. ‘Apple’s relationship with partners is transactional, completely. Apple doesn’t have an inclusive philosophy of partner capabilities, and that’s just absurd,’ DeWitt said in an interview Monday at HP’s Americas Partner Conference in Las Vegas.”
McLaughlin reports, “Solution providers that have done business with Apple have voiced similar concerns in the past. Those that continue selling Apple products have done so despite feeling, in some cases, like Apple doesn’t have their best interests at heart. But mobility is an area of IT that hasn’t been traditionally handled by the channel, so it’s tough to say that Apple is missing the boat here. HP, nonetheless, is forging ahead with its partner-oriented WebOS message.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Before HP blathers on about channel partnering, perhaps they should shut up and ship something to their “partners” first and prove that they’re more than just webOS-branded retail shelving dust collectors, for a change.
