“A spun-off HP PC division might bring back the TouchPad, Personal Systems Group lead Todd Bradley said in an interview Tuesday,” Electronista reports. “He saw the tablet field as a market area that’s ‘relevant, absolutely’ and thus that the company could come back with a webOS device, according to Reuters. Current HP CEO Leo Apotheker had axed the TouchPad after saying it didn’t get enough traction just seven weeks into its lifespan.”
“Any resurrection would most likely involve a new or heavily upgraded design,” Electronista reports. “The PSG division making PCs won’t decide on whether to spin out until December and would take months from then to become separate, making it necessary to develop a sequel. It would also presumably need to get a webOS license from its former owner.”
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Electronista reports, “Regardless of plans, Bradley was convinced that his PC division as a separate entity would stay in the top spot for market share.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: By all means, resurrect the TouchPad, HP spin off. It would be an excellent use of time and resources. Wonderful idea.
I agree MDN!
Maybe Ford could also resurrect the Edsel.
That is a success story to the number of tablets HP sold.
If that’s the case, at least they would have a lot more users than they would have had if not for the fire sale.
CPR for the dead.
And pigs may fly.
this will be another scam by WS. The SHYSTERS will get their 35 basis points in fees. They will get to purchase stocks at a discount (probably also have convertibles). The will turn this around, selling some to their preferred high tiered clients. Push the stock price by 200 percent making a bundle by unloading the stocks and some call options.
The execs will have their share. Of course the bag holders will probably be a pension fund managed by the SHYSTERS themselves.
I wish I could be on the board of one of these companies. You just spent $100 million on research, development, production, and marketing. We’ve hardly sold any of these socalled “iPad killers” so after 7 weeks we sell them off for $99 – a major loss. Now you say you want to do this all over again. Is today April 1? Am I being Punk’d? Really? How much weed did you smoke last night?
I’d call for his resignation immediately. Give me $50 million and you’ll still come out ahead.
“The PSG division making PCs won’t decide on whether to spin out until December…”
Unbelievable. By the time they figure it out, the market will have gotten the message: HP computer devices have no reliable long-term support.
With that kind of management would you buy an HP-branded computer or tablet for your home or business?
Business, yes. HP’s enterprise / server business unit is in no trouble at all. They are king of that market and will continue to be. Enterprises everywhere do and will continue to use their server products regardless of what they do in the consumer market. Its the one thing HP does very very well.
Servers and systems sure. But PCs and mobile are finished. People complain about Apple’s lack of a roadmap, but HP announced there may not even be a road.
This is the same kind of perceptive advice as when all these clowns said Apple’s only hope was to license the Mac OS.
All those employees want to keep working.
Yeah, but if the company’s main product is sold on a 5% gross margin and its other product is sold at a hefty loss, how pray will the company be able to afford its employees?
You can’t resurrect something that was never alive in the first place.
True.
How stupid. I guess the first embarrassment wasn’t enough. I wonder if Best Buy will 250,000 to only sell 25,000 again? I doubt it. 🙂
Too little, too late, twice.
Don’t make it a third.
Somehow I don’t think you can stay number one in any market when you announce you are killing yourself off.
Ahhhh!! But how about number one plus?
even #1 in a shrinking market is nothing to brag about. this kind of insight from the accountable executive is the first place to look for fixing the problem. the rest of hp is going their own way on ink and services. aligent has already been spun out. the decision to shed the PSG for the core hp competencies confirms the error in buying compaq to be a market leader.
that’s why apple does not buy large entities to engorge themselves. how many time will it take for the M&A fever to kill off some of these slothy companies. keep your cash in the mattress. the profits you made selling into shrinking markets should be invested in buildng a future, not buying one. my personal observation is that people who are great at running companies when they milking success (RIM) are not the one to lead that same company through change. steve jobs may be a rare exception.
So what are they going to call this entity… What about ‘Palm’ after all it is very likely to follow the same trail from top spot to corpse within a decade.
No doubt, this announcement came because HP PC sales dropped off a cliff after the idiot CEO indicated they were hoping to shed that business somehow. (The comment about tablet devices is just an afterthought.) Michael Dell is surely blown away by the unexpected windfall of sales that would otherwise have gone to HP. Why the heck did HP feel compelled to make this public until they actually had a plan to announce?
No way this is gonna happen. You don’t announce that a product has been cancelled and sell all inventories at a deep discount, THEN spin off the company.
After the cancellation and inventory sell-off, the customers base is gone forever.