How will HP beat the competition (Apple/Google)? Apotheker knows. [Video] 60
"It's a marathon, and this is only the beginning." -Leo Apotheker, Fortune Interview
Sometimes to get a better understanding of what HP plans on doing with webOS, you have to take what they offer as a whole, rather than focusing on the one or two devices that they've released since acquiring Palm last year. At least, that's what Leo Apotheker would have us believe as we look towards the inevitable releases this Summer, and whatever announcements they might make the second half of this year.
In his interview with Fortune Magazine Editor, Adam Lashinsky, Leo didn't just talk aboout PCs running webOS, but laid out a plan for webOS devices that he hopes will ease any worries from curious onlookers. But you'll have to jump over the break to catch the full run-down of what he had to say, and the accompanying video, if you want to know more.
If you were unsure whether HP was taking the Palm products and webOS seriously when compared to Google and Apple, Leo's statements should give you some solid ground to stand on while we wait. When asked specifically why HP is not at a huge disadvantage after being nearly a year behind the competition with device capabilities, and even further behind in market-share, he put it pretty bluntly in return; "Because we happen to be the world's largest PC maker and we happen to be the world's largest printer maker." It is HP's strength in those devices that he says gives proof to the potential they have in creating a self-sustaining webOS ecosystem for both enterprise customers and your every-day consumers.
But what about Smartphones? With Apple and Google pulling further ahead in that market every day, where does HP's strength in PCs and printers come to play with the growing market of mobile devices? If Mark Hurd made a slip of the toungue last year when saying that HP was not buying Palm to get into the smartphone game, Apotheker has made a much more comfortable (but similar) statement this time. The smartphone is only one player in the game that he believes is still having the rules written - "connected devices" are where the concept of smartphones will inevitably lead, and HP is the first company to push so heavily beyond smartphones and into the connected future.
He listed two very interesting "connected devices" (along with smartphones, PCs and tablets) while explaining what the future of webOS looks like: TVs and home appliances. Is he saying that HP will win in smartphones because they plan on offering webOS-powered toasters? Perhaps that's stretching his comment a bit, but it doesn't seem that far-fetched once you begin looking at it. Not only will we be able to control our printers using a webOS smartphone from the other side of the world, but we may soon see this same interactivity with our TVs while we're on our way home, or our security system while on vacation, or maybe even our fridge as it reminds us to buy milk while we're out.
Again, that might be stretching things a bit, but the idea remains. HP has already beat Apple once to become to world's largest PC and printer maker in the world, even after Apple was the first major player in the market of personal computers, and it will beat them again to become the world's largest maker of "connected devices", even as Apple (and now Google) dominates the market of mobile devices. You can only keep making the "best" smartphone or tablet for so long before the masses start looking for something else. HP is betting on being that better "something else" before anyone else can.
While Apple and Google are going after your "every-day consumer", HP is going after the "pro-sumer" (professional consumer). They don't just want to create devices for the enterprise, or for the home, but for both worlds. As Apotheker says, that includes not just the devices they'll be releasing this summer, but also the "ensemble of devices that will follow" in the second half of 2011 and forward. By the way it sounds, we may also be seeing a wide range of devices announced at the same time as the releases this summer.
If that's the case, we may be coming close to the end of days when you hear people say "HP releases devices too seldomly to beat the competition." That's something we're all looking forward to, yea?
Fortune; Thanks, Casey!
60 Comments
This guy just makes me want to hug him! :P
Maybe not hug him, but certainly it is the first time I hear something about WebOS that actually makes any sense at all, from HP's higher ranks.
We will see, soon enough.
"(...) or maybe even our fridge as it reminds us to buy milk while we're out.(...)"
yeah, you mean that HP fridge, that happens to be a commodity in every home appliance store, or maybe your HP TV, equally popular? OR maybe you really mean any of the army of Android-powered ones?
Besides, I hear that "smart fridge" with every release of web-related piece of technology - first time it was when JAva was released into the wild. That was even better then, they were anticipating it to automatically order some stuff for you in a web store, when your milk's best before date was approaching. I am getting sick with that stupid cliche.
T U R D
Maybe. At the end of the day, too many vague grandiose visions, and not enough product, mindshare, apps, marketing, excitement and buzz...just isn't gonna cut it. The Veer launch seemed...pointless.
If by October when I'm up for Sprint upgrade, HP is still "laying groundwork" and talking a big game while other manufacturers keep releasing awesome new product faster than it takes HP to organize another "coming months" announcement, then I may cash in, Touchstones and all, and jump ship. Could use all my Touchstones as...as...anyone have ideas what to do with old Touchstones?
I'm an original Pre- Sprint loyalist but even I'm getting skeptical. I could get used to the new XPRT released (to market) June 5th.
Maybe, Leo. Maybe.
Leo has a lot of penance to do. Everyone forgets he used to work for SAP, one of the worst software companies in the world. Their software is so obtuse that there are even comments in it (in german) to the effect of "what does this function do?"
And this is reason to hope? According to the disturbing Leo bits you report here, the presumption is, he'll continue to do more of the same as he did at SAP. This makes me even more skeptical!
ya because CEO's make software... :roll:
I dont know much about SAP, but fact is WebOS is hands down the most well designed OS (interms of multitasking and UI) in the market.. all they need is apps, good hardware, and good advertising push that CLEARLY EXPLAINS the advantages of WebOS and HOW TO USE IT!... Make it simple, not flashy
Oh wanted to add. You are doing something wrong when Microsoft has a far superior product than you do. Dynamics is sooo much better than SAP its not even funny.
Also, funny enough, the printer support in SAP has always sucked. The excuse was that "Germans don't print things so we didn't spend time on that feature."
You could use your old Touchstones to build your own particle accelerator and study the fabric of the universe from quarks, nuons, muons, and neons...I might have gotten a couple of those '-ons' wrong.
Or, you could send them to me and i'll...no, I'll probably keep one (add to my 3) and sell the rest on ebay! Or Craig's List? ;)
You give your Touchstones to me!!
Could use all my Touchstones as...as...anyone have ideas what to do with old Touchstones?
you could try and make a Franken case for your next Android device, at least that is what I will try - to implant the coils from the Pre's back to another phone, and connect them to phone's USB port, I guess.
That has been done for the Nexus S 4G, saw it in the forums. There is a step by step guide on how to do it.
Not a chance.
Yup that's what RIM said when the iPhone was announced.
Patience will pay off, i am sick of waiting also, but i will wait-- webos all the way
They're gonna be better than number one though.
The only way the touchPad will win is if its priced 100$ cheaper than the the iPad. The average consumer will see no reason to purchase a touchpad over an ipad whatsoever, get real HP.
they just need to bundle it with the touchstone, not lower the price..
price = precevied value/ quality
however adding a "bonus" like a $80 (?)touchstone for FREEE!! makes the consumer think they are getting a great deal/ good bang fo their buck..
Also, they should a free touchstone with preorder of a TouchPad, so they get high sale numbers right out of the gate.. Same thing with their smartphones.. touchstone is a key diferentiator and they need to give ppl a taste of it..
for example, for those people who have a touchstone, chances are you have multiple laying around the house/work/car?.. I know i have 3.. so they give one free and people will mostliekly buy more.
HP is giving away a Touchstone with the Veer on O2 Germany - perhaps they'll do the same with other devices/carriers.
Maybe... But, what if you could touch your pre3 to your printer and the document you've been editing on the train pops up on the printer (webOS) menu and askd if you want to print or save to your network...
I truly think that PalmHP has the best vision of the future of computing and it is very exciting so I am willing to wait. I think of HP like a huge machine with cogs and wheels, it may take a while to get it going but when it does we're all going to be astounded.
I'm a day one pre- carrier and even though my phone is 2 years old it's still a damn good phone. Just keep thinking of that connecitvity vision we get hints of....
HP plans on selling us lots of devices. How convenient. What an innovative strategy - sell every customer a bunch of things. Oh, your going to connect them? Well, in that case sign me up.
If I want my smartphone to be connected to as many other devices in my life as possible, the first thing I should do is make sure my smartphone platform is one of the most if not the most popular one.
At some point there WILL be toasters among other kitchen appliances that have the ability to be connected to a smartphone.
Anyone care to guess which platform they will likely connect to? Hint - it will not be one of the ones that has market share listed as "other".
I'm just glad that people around here still get excited at this guy's statements. It's worse than Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football....
No not quite but I understand the sentiment. There isn't intent to deceive and punish. Just overpromising and underdelivering, if those are...words
What's the difference for a consumer? The point is that whether it's Apotheker promising shipping within "weeks" of announcement or Steven McArthur promising "tens of thousands" of apps then they "ship", these guys manage expectations in the worst way possible.
Great vision. I hope it becomes reality!
I'm a big fan of iOS devices.
However, I really really really hope WebOS gets succesful. Not just in the US, but also over here in europe. There's no market where I live (netherlands), so really no way to even the playground at the moment.
With the new devices announced and hopefully released on-time, I am looking forward to some real competition with Apple. It's getting boring, and Android is just not up to par (maybe one paper, but not in use).
So, here's to Apotheker and WebOS.. that they'll be very succesful..
Have you noticed, if you go to the HP Website and look up information on the Touch Pad, there is a big picture of the HP TouchPad with the calader app open set to the following date: June 20, 2011. Is HP tyring to tell us something?? ;)
I had noticed that.
The sneaky **** .. Must. Get. Money.
hmmm...they might just be trolling us though...
Yes they are. This date has been mentioned previously.
That's the problem, all HP cares about is making devices. They think that "if they build it, we will buy" and they aren't putting the focus on reasons why we would want to buy. Meaning that the selection of quality apps is severely lacking.
I don't understand what's taking HP so long to release hardware if they have so many resources dedicated to WebOS devices. Heck, Samsung totally reworked the Galaxy Tab 10 when they saw the iPad 2 specs less than 6 months ago. That's being released in two weeks and is just as good as the TouchPad with a lower price tag.
Apple is already the king of interconnected devices. Almost every new car or electronic device has an iphone dock built in. **** even Palm tried to hack into itunes since so many people's heads would explode if they had to use something else.
Slow news day, Tim?
This interview is nearly a month old.
-c2
This is ridiculous. Ask Intel how much being the biggest chip maker is helping them in their race with ARM. Ask Microsoft how much being the biggest software maker is helping in the battle against Android and iOS. HP being the biggest PC company gets them only that. There is no birthright to anything else.
Additionally HP has it **** backwards if they think internet connected appliances drive smartphone sales. Peoples #1 appliance is the smartphone. They will not choose based on printers, webOS virtual machines, toasters, home automation or anything else. Smartphones drive the rest of the ecosystem.
You better push out some cutting edge phones tablets, buddy, otherwise you just threw away $2 billion, and your shareholders won't be pleased. And no I'm not talking about the pre3 or touchpad. HP already lost this cycle.
I guess all of the trolls just wait for positive articles so they can post negative comments so this is a good sign that great things are on the horizon, can't wait.
LOL....more silly HP promises is a "positive" thing? Ok....I guess that's why they're destined to be "number one plus"!
what did you see that was positive? 1. HP thinks it will win just because it's HP and smartphones and tablets not a priority but just another appliance in the ecosystem. The best line is this: " You can only keep making the "best" smartphone or tablet for so long before the masses start looking for something else." As if that's some justification for pushing out old technology. HP is the underdog and pushing out the best phones and tablets, not relying on some mythical, unicorn called the webOS ecosystem to drive sales. Ecosystem starts with the smartphone, then the tablet, then everything else. They're fools if they think printers,TVs and the like will drive sales.
I just installed WebOS on my soap dispenser.......
Maybe Leo needs to stock up on black turtle neck T-shirts.
Argh! More marathon references? Funny thing about Marathons. There are only two ways to win them (without cheating).
1. Run faster than everyone else.
2. Hope the people that are running faster than you burn out or are injured before finishing.
People keep saying "this is a marathon" as if the competition doesn't think so as well. Even in Marathons you must still move forward at a reasonable pace for it to matter (unless the goal is to simply finish...without placing).
Yo HP! The competition knows it's a marathon as well.
If they want a WOW! as they spin this up they need to price this first version of the TouchPad at $299 or $399 and be able to ship 5 million of them in short order. The polish (the shiny smoothness, not the stereotypical backwardness of the people of Poland) of WebOS will sell itself and expand the evangelist base if they can get a WOW out of the gate...
Being able to walk in to a store and get one for $299 will result in a WOW!
Like how being able to get a Palm Pre 2 or Veer for $99 (or less if you use Amazon or Wirefly) has made a WOW! for HP in the handset world?
Folks, I'm sorry, but you need more than WebOS at a cheap price on black plastic hardware that actually powers up to change the situation.
If that's the standard, Pre 3 is just a mid-cycle placeholder also. What's the difference? Marginally faster processor, same 2.0 OS as Pre 2, same form factor, marginally better screen, marginally larger screen, still no 4g, still no dual core, communication coil gimmick. No killer features and nothing really different than Pre2.
Also, look at where tablets are going: Samsung is getting raves for its Galaxy Tab 10.1 slim and light form factor, iPad, same, ASUS is selling Transformers because it's cheap. Xoom is thick and chunky and by some accounts not selling. Playbook is aimed at BB users (many, many more than webOS users). Touchpad, in contrast, is 50% thicker than Samsung or Apple, 60% heavier, with negligible built-in user base, and nothing really to appeal to the average consumer.
Where's the WOW in any of that?
All 'naysayer' fools, read the following and learn what the CTO is saying :
http://allthingsd.com/20110523/hps-twynergy-app-gleans-patterns-from-a-s...
Just one paragraph from the above said article :
McKinney also used his talk with the crowd of Maker Faire hackers to show off Palm’s TouchPad WebOS tablet, due to ship this summer, controlling a fan and lamp and monitoring temperature, all wirelessly. McKinney said that HP needs the help of all the “makers” out there to develop cool apps.
How is it that they have "tens of thousands" of apps already commited to launch with the TouchPad, and yet need the help of "makers" out there to develop apps just one month before launch?
Seriously? Like Phil's gonna say "Hey, we're good. Go back to the other platforms."?
Because tens of thousands is less than hundreds of thousands. If they had hundreds of thousands of apps and the other platforms had millions of apps they would still be at a disadvantage because it's all about numbers these days.
Instead of CES, HP shows up at Maker Faire. LOL!
Maybe you haven't heard, but Google announced its initiative for Android home automation at I/O. WebOS, a nascent OS, isn't going to get a lot of traction here with Android in the picture, ahead and with about 3,500% more users.
Sigh. Here's an app someone was working on LAST YEAR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3TPRUzk8Qk&feature=related
Here is that ability for android and ios: http://thedroidguy.com/2011/05/control-you-light-bulbs-using-android-or-...
Here is an old iOS app for that: http://www.martin.com/product/product.asp?product=iosmaxremote
I have been controlling my home alarm system from my Android phone for more than a year now.
Is it really that impressive that webOS is "just" getting around to it?
Hi all,
This sounds very positive, count me in!
Take care,
jay
Nice work Tim.
Now for selling the TPs :
Think people. Who are the ones to whom HP is going to sell their TPs? To the prosumers, right? Now, prosumers (professional consumers)do not buy any gadgets for their own professional use we all know, because they get those free from their work ! So think of HP itself with its 324K employees, and it's big clients with 100+K employees for whom HP manages their systems and sells services, including one of the biggest in the world, the US Defense Department with almost trillion $ budgets. Yes, HP manages about 80% of USDD data-centers. So you have hundreds of thousands of prosumers directly under the control of HP, who are going to get a TP (just like they have a laptop/desktop on their desks)and perhaps a Pre-3 too, :-), totally free !!! But paid by their employers (and in case of like USDD or NASA, paid by tax-payers!). And for security reasons HP may require any 3rd party gadgets non-admissible at work. This is called enterprise selling !!
Hello,,,? Anyone to complain about getting a free TP/Pre-3 free from their work ?
Really, all I want is a webos phone in the old treo form factor. I hope they have not forsaken this for ever. The last thing in the word I want is a slider phone. Please, Mr. Leo....
Is that Leo in the commercial where he says
"I pick things up and throw them down"
Kinda sounds like him?>??
Personally I am excited about this video. HP has been number one in PC sales for a long time, they lasted through the Apple original computer, the Gateway boom and the DELL takeover of Gateway sales. HP has a lot of hands in a lot of different places. I personally think they are doing fine I would much rather HP build a VERY solid infrastructure and then release the tools than to release the tools with nothing to connect to. Apple iPhone is a fad that requires a bandwagon eventually people jump off. Android is a great platform, the ONLY way they stay in the running is the relentless release of Android devices flooding and diluting the opposition. WebOS/HP is building their own ecosystem for which once inside that is where you will live and work. HP has been slow but that is where my bet is for the next 2-3 years.
I love WebOS but suffer from extreme app envy. I would love to see the "thousands" they speak of materialize. There are several iOS apps that I could use everyday but just don't exist for WebOS. I need WebOS to become relevant faster!
i second that completely. there are very few useful apps to me for webOs but the platform itself is incredible. i just need it to become relevant immediately because iOS may get my money for a couple years while they figure it out.
Best news of webOS Ive read in a while. I really hope most of the webOS news is still under wraps and will explode by the time the holidays roll around this fall/winter. Yeah, beeatch slap apple & google HP!! I know you can.