Is HP Trying To Be The New Apple?
from the who-isn't? dept
I didn’t post anything yesterday about HP’s “big bang” of product releases – where they simultaneously launched 158 new consumer electronics offerings, because it didn’t seem all that interesting. A few innovative offerings mixed in with a ton of nothing special. However, this Fortune column suggests that HP is trying to become the Apple of the PC world. Of course, both Gateway and Sony have also been trying to become the Apple of the PC world and are finding it isn’t that easy. At first, it argues that HP is reaching for Bill Gates’ dream of a world centered around a Windows-running PC. However, he points out that, in order to make things user friendly, HP is going to have to move away from industry standards to support more innovative uses. No matter what, between Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway and others, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the “computer business” is no longer the “computer business”. As everything starts to connect, it’s expanding the business into new areas. What’s still unclear, is what strategy is going to win in a world where everything is connected. Considering that Apple has made a big splash with their offerings, but still only commands a small percentage of the market, I’m not even sure Apple is the “Apple” of the market – since everyone seems to keep using it to mean this sort of perfectly balanced company offering a combination of computing and consumer electronics in the perfect package. That’s a goal no company has come close to yet.
Comments on “Is HP Trying To Be The New Apple?”
Pre-sliced apples
Apple: The Computer for Women and Gays.
Re: x86
x86: The computer for Dirty People
Re: Pre-sliced apples
So that will be the computer for more than 50% of the world’s population then. Sounds like a winner to me.
No Apple
The day it drops the M$ crap and starts shipping consumer computers and PDAs based on its own software, HP can attempt to compare itself to Apple.
No Subject Given
There’s a very simple reason that no one in the HP/SONY/DELL world is going to become the ‘apple’ of the PC World.
They all use the same operating system/interface to drive there products and therefore to the end users there is very little difference between SONY/HP/GATEWAY/DELL other than the price of the product.
When one of these companies has the ‘nads to develop their own OS (or layer their interface of an existing OS (think Linux)) they’re all basically offering the same product, difference price point.
Re: No Subject Given
Like Sony and their higher end PDAs, it’s PALM OS, but sony’s interface on top of it.
Sure it’s easy to develop your own OS or layer your own interface over an existing one when you control 100% of the hardware and software *cough*cough*, but seeing as how Microsoft is having enough problems even holding on to the software aspect I don’t see any manufacturers doing that anytime soon.
No Subject Given
I think the thing most people discount about hp is the fact that everything they do in the hardware area just so happens to be supported under Linux. Big bang offerings aside. This is a really big deal. As loud as they’ve been about things lately, I find it interesting that they have quietly built a majority market share for Linux hardware. Sneaky, but a good move.