H-p

[Brian Ellis]

Hewlett-Packard have come a long way from their garage and not always for the better. They started off with measuring instruments and they became #1 in this field with some truly innovative products. It was this that took them from the "garage" to a highly respected and profitable multinational.

Then, about 35 years ago, they became interested in small computers, including the HP-65 programmable pocket calculator in 1975, a marvel of its day. In 1979, they marketed their first real PC (before the term PC was coined), the HP-85/86/87 series. These were highly successful for technical work and tied in perfectly with their instruments (and those of other makers). I developed the world's first computerised ionic contamination tester in 1979, around the HP-85 (later models used the HP-86 and we didn't switch to the PC until 1987). I can't remember the date, I guess about 15 years ago, HP hived off their instruments to Agilent to concentrate on their versions of the PC and peripherals. Their printer business became very successful but on low margins. Their big mistake was a greedy tie-up with Compaq and their PC business has since become rather iffy.

Now it wants to hive off PCs and peripherals and concentrate on software, acquiring UK-based Autonomy to do so. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14582489 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14582489

I feel the ghosts of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard should haunt the corporate headquarters (and the 1939 garage). The change from instruments to PCs was a mistake (Agilent is still #1 in instrumentation "Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. The company's 18,500 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $5.4 billion in fiscal 2010."). I feel that a change from hardware to software will be an even bigger one, especially with a fairly young academic-based company with a specialised portfolio of products.

I wonder whether HP will be around to celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2019???

[Dr Mordrid]

No surprise - they've been going downhill for a while. A real shame.

[cjolley]

Are they giving up the server market, or just PCs?

[Brian Ellis]

Not clear but as server and PC developments can go hand-in-hand, it would seem logical that they would hive both sides off as a job lot ????

[cjolley]

Not clear but as server and PC developments can go hand-in-hand, it would seem logical that they would hive both sides off as a job lot ????

We use HP servers and have a few HP PCs here at work. (Our desktops are mostly Dells)

I don't think there are any common components between the servers and PCs. All the way down to the internal plugs, cables, and fans.
Same for their tech support.
I'd guess they are virtually unrelated operations.

[Jammrock]

HP servers are very popular and I am sure profitable. The announcement says "PC" so my guess is it's just the consumer branch. Similar to the move IBM made a while back, selling the consumer computer division to Lenovo but keeping the commercial server unit.

[KRSESQ]

Damn, I'll miss HP PCs. Most of what I fix are HPs.

[UtwigMU]

I worked for a HP partner for a while and that company was kind of toe the line type. The bosses there believed everything HP and other reps told them. So while I had several objective reasons to like my Thinkpads more than HP I had to sell it on to customers. Also torx screw were reason for many a swearing and trips back to the office. Latter I moved to a company where boss literally wrote to reps of our main selling product that it is crap. Everything was much better there.

That said IMO PC market will shrink. Most people will use cell phones or tablets but people who had PCs before internet (office workers, enthusiasts, self employed professionals) will still have them.

[Jammrock]

That said IMO PC market will shrink. Most people will use cell phones or tablets but people who had PCs before internet (office workers, enthusiasts, self employed professionals) will still have them.

While phones and tablets are admittedly good for on the go work, they suck at hard core productivity. Eventually you'll have tablets that will dock with some sort of input station and that's all you need, but that's down the road.

And let's not get into how companies don't like having confidential info on small, easy to lose or get stolen devices Desktops will be around for a while longer. Eventually only hard core users will need them, but I give them ten more years at least.

[Elie]

Our blade serve infrastructure is primarily IBM and HP. Our desktops and laptops for the user base is also HP.
Wonder what the IT guys are thinking now?

I'll ask them on Monday.


Elie

[Jammrock]

They'll probably throw a party

[Umfriend]

Wrt Security, Blackberry seems to do fine. Not sure if their (soon....) coming 4G 7" Playbook will be as secure as well.
I hate HP consumer machines with a vengeance. I have a few under support for family. Waste of time. Same with their printers BTW. I remember the good old days of the LaserJet III when they were top-notch in build quility. As of LJ IV, it started to go downhill.

Having said that, that will not be the reason they're canning the PC market. Prolly an analysis similar to IBM with their PC business. BY now, and then already, a move from low-margin saturated markets to high-markets growing markets perhaps (at least in the view of management, I am ignorant of such things).

[Brian Ellis]

Damn, I'll miss HP PCs. Most of what I fix are HPs.

That's because the rest don't need fixing!

[Brian Ellis]

I'm firmly of the desktop camp. I have three of them in my home office. Why? above all, reliability, repairability, flexibility and expandability. I no longer have a notebook as I no longer travel. I have a Blackberry look-alike: far too painful for use for more than 10 minutes and I sure can't do real video editing on it (one of my 'puters is dedicated to the application). I'm not convinced with pads, either. I like screens that I can see and are not obscured by my hand and keyboards I can feel that provide tactile feedback.

If desktops stay for 10 years, that suits me fine as I'll be dead long before then!

[Dr Mordrid]

I still have quite a collection of desktops, but I do find myself using the iPad 2 for most of my personal browsing, mainly because it lets me do it from my recliner

Mobile stuff is either the iPhone (always there) or iPad 2, unless I need Flash support or more power and Windows software. Might go with an Android when my contracts up next spring to mitigate the Flash part.