HP to keep PC division
HP will continue to make consumer PCs. Any chance it can make them less fugly?
The decision comes after ‘HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees.’
Part of the reason for the apparent U-turn on spinning off or ditching the PSG seems to be that it was too well integrated into HP’s other activities: ‘The data-driven evaluation revealed the depth of the integration that has occurred across key operations such as supply chain, IT and procurement.
It also detailed the significant extent to which PSG contributes to HP’s solutions portfolio and overall brand value. Finally, it also showed that the cost to recreate these in a standalone company outweighed any benefits of separation.’
HP will therefore continue to be the top manufacturer of PCs, at least in terms of revenue ($40.7bn for the fiscal years 2010). Todd Bradley, executive vice president of PSG, also said, ‘We intend to make the leading PC business in the world even better.’
There is no mention of WebOS or WebOS devices in the statement, so we must presume the decision to cease production of WebOS devices still stands.
Relieved to hear HP sees a profitable future in making and selling consumer PCs, or is this merely postponing the inevitable? Let us know in the forum.
Previous Article
23 Comments
Discuss in the forums Replybtw, that laptop looks puuurtty :D (as for the comment at the caption of the image)
Fear I must disagree with you there - I bought an HP nx7000 (one of the first widescreen and one of the first Centrino laptops) in 2003, and it's still going strong. Only thing I've needed to replace on it has been the keyboard a few years ago, and that was mostly my own fault. Now doing duty for a friend and still working.
So not all of their stuff is cheap and tacky. ;)
Idiots
Its good to have strong players in the market. Keeps everyone honest :D
To continue your analogy, it's like the car company that also makes boats hires the former exec of a boat-building company, and he then decides that the company will stop making cars and focus on boats instead.
As I've only used HP's Elitebooks, I couldn't testify as to the quality of their more mainstream laptops. Elitebooks are nice though, tougher with nice features.
hmm that makes a lot of sense. still doesn't change the fact that the guy made an incredibly dumb decision.
Have used several brands before and I can assure you, from all of them the HP ones I've had were indeed the best in terms of longevity (got a 6 year old and a 9 year old laptops).
Have you ever used an HP computer? Hearing from other people is not the ideal way to express your own opinion of a product...
PS: there's also that awesome case where it's obviously the user's fault, but hey... "faulty computer with tacky parts" sounds a lot better to say :P
I built him a cheaper, better and faster system. There is always a cost saving somewhere with builders like HP.
The reason for why I said they never seem to last is this :
2 Of my housemates have a HP laptops - Both died. Both from Faulty screen after a year/half use & other teething issues.
1 House mate has a HP printer. - dead...Also his HP desktop computer's motherboard and HDD failed too.
Also never heard anyone say anything good about HP...untill now! But fair enough...
That was the bog-standard HP consumer laptops no? Because their Business line rocks. I am currently using a 2710p which is the tablet version of their 12" laptop. It is two years old and it is used for around 8 hours a day for typing and browsing. It has never let me down. Ever. The hinges still feel solid, the battery life is good and the only thing I would want to replace was the keyboard. It is starting to feel a bit mushy.
Fair point that their quality might have dropped in recent years compared to the bulletproof tanks of yesteryear but depends what you're buying, my Deskjet 950c is still going strong 12 years later, it's only cartridge prices that are finally retiring it, in favour of a newer multifunction model, the 2050 which was the same cost as a set of cartridges for the 950. Needed a new scanner so killed two birds with one stone.
Happy they're still around, but now they'll have to absorb any increase to the HDD cost rather than passing that on to the customers if they want to remain competitive.
I'm afraid I must disagree with you.
A friend bought his HP desktop a few years ago (E6600, 2GB Ram, etc) and is still using it as his main machine although it's now upgraded to 4GB (only because he needed more RAM for Photoshop etc) and has had a CPU cooler change as it failed. Apart from that it's working extremely well.
Until earlier this year I was using an HP laptop at work and even though it was lugged around everywhere it never failed me. Okay it was gettings slow but that was more to do with XP never being re-installed on it and all of the software we have to run at work. It was 4 years old when it was swapped due to being out of warranty and now I'm using a Leveno.
Well, it really would depend on how your housemates treat their kit. If it's anything like my 18 year old lodger then I am surprised they lasted that long unless they were the ruggedised versions.
Never used their laptops, but worked for a company who used their servers for a workflow system for many years. The only things that seemed to go wrong were the occasional power supply (hot swappable, nice), the odd HDD failure (hot swap and reboot to rebuild, nice) usually due to the last problem of overheating due to an awfull lot of dust/spiders/other assorted crap (quick hoover, sorted). They were used in an industrial environment with a lot of airbourne dust and not the gentlest of users. When I left there were still plenty of 8 year old servers pushing the work through 24 hours a day. I even dropped one down 4 flights of stairs once. Didn't look too good afterwards but still worked as if nothing happened.
Those of us with hairs on our chests who can remember the 70s and 80s, THEN large companies made their own kit. Not now.
I spent the last couple weeks telling people, a relative few, to avoid HP since they were shutting down their PC group. I would've recommended them after seeing the punishment an Elitebook can withstand. The alternative is a Dell M4600, so not a no-win situation, literally a few days after the trigger was pulled. Life does go on though.