Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

[iam802]

Palm Chief: By Birthright, Palm Should Have Owned the Smartphone Market

http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/2010 ... hoo_ticker

What Palm chief Jon Rubinstein’s appearance at Web 2.0 Summit today lacked in news, it made up for somewhat in perspective–on the mobile space, Palm’s smartphone birthright, its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard and its future under HP.

“Palm created the PDA (personal digital assistant) space with the Pilot and the smartphone space after it with the Treo,” Rubinstein said this morning, reflecting on the company’s state when he first came to it. “So by birthright, Palm should have owned the smartphone market, but it just lost its way. It’s a very similar story to what happened with Apple.”

Except, of course, Apple never forfeited its independence to another company in the hopes of reclaiming its birthright, or to execute the broader vision of connected devices that arose from it. But in Palm’s case, its acquisition by HP made perfect sense. “We needed more resources,” Rubinstein said. “We could not compete in a fashion that would allow us to be one of the premier companies in the marketplace. And HP needed a strong mobile strategy around which they could innovate–one that would allow them to control their own furture and not rely on the kindness of strangers.”

In other words, to differentiate and succeed in the mobile device space, you need to own a veritically integrated stack strategy–software, hardware and services–like the one Palm is now building out with the help of HP’s not inconsiderable resources. “We’ve actually pulled a couple hundred people out of HP and made them part of Palm,” Rubinstein explained. “We’re using them to broaden our scope and we’re just cranking away. Our view is we’re going to see people with more and more devices in the future and HP is in the middle of all this. So our focus is to deliver a unified experience for that around webOS.”

So what’s Palm got in the pipeline for next year?

“We’ve got some great products in the works,” Rubinstein said. “Some smartphones, a great tablet coming. I think we have several products that will be hits when they come out….Everyone forgets, we just closed this acquisition in July….This time next year, you’ll see us in a very different position.”

[iam802]

HP to pit "TouchPad" against Apple's iPad, Google



http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/ ... ZW20110209

[iam802]

High chance more job cuts at HPQ.

From a chart perspective, IBM chart looks much better than HPQ.

HPQ is bearish at $40 and looks to drop further.

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Hewlett-Packard CEO Sees ‘Tough Third Quarter’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-1 ... -says.html

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker told top executives that he’s bracing for “another tough quarter” in the July period and urged deputies to “watch every penny and minimize all hiring.”

The company’s existing headcount plans are “unaffordable given the pressures on our business,” Apotheker wrote in the May 4 memo to deputies, including Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the personal systems business, and Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak. The memo was obtained by Bloomberg.

“Q3 is going to be another tough quarter, one in which we will be driving hard for revenue and profit,” Apotheker wrote. “We have absolutely no room for profitless revenue or any discretionary expenditures.”

Apotheker’s e-mail followed a February forecast for second- quarter sales and profit that missed analysts’ estimates. Hewlett-Packard blamed the shortfall on sluggish demand for services and consumer products. The memo indicates that the company continues to come under pressure and suggests job cuts are in the offing.

...

[kennynah]

earnings results just released a moment ago...1230pm gmt

[iam802]

Internal memo leaks...becomes early earnings released

It drops more than 7%
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Couple of thoughts straight out of the head without in-depth analysis:
- PALM acquisition and its translation into revenue for HPQ
- Consumer purchase of low end computers; partial shift to tablets. Dominated by AAPL
- Against the likes of IBM, Oracle, RedHat... HPQ Professional Services is not standing out strongly. Mindset game.
- HPQ acquisition of EDS some years back; another low margin play (in my opinion)

[iam802]

Hewlett-Packard Company To Buy Print Services Company Printelligent-Business Standard

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/H ... le/2329955

Business Standard reported that Hewlett-Packard Company has agreed to acquire privately owned printing services company Printelligent to expand its offerings to small and medium-sized businesses. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in the fiscal third quarter.

[iam802]

I hope they succeed and kill off RIMM's initiatives in the tablet space
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HP in Discussions to License WebOS: Apotheker

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-2 ... -says.html

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), the world’s largest maker of personal computers, is in discussions to license its WebOS mobile software, Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker said.

“We are talking to a number of companies,” Apotheker said in an interview in Beijing yesterday, declining to elaborate on details. “I can share with you that a number of companies have expressed interest. We are continuing our conversations.”

WebOS would give hardware makers a choice beyond Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android operating system and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software as they seek to challenge Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s grip on the smartphone and tablet-computer markets. For Hewlett-Packard, which cut its sales forecast by $1 billion last month, licensing the operating system would help strengthen software operations as PC sales slump.

“The reality is that Google and Apple are in the driving seat here and consumers are voting with their dollars,” said Shaw Wu, a San Francisco-based analyst for Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. He recommends buying HP shares and doesn’t own the stock. “The problem for HP here is how do they license it without competing with their own products?”

Hewlett-Packard, which makes and sells its own phones and tablets that run the WebOS operating system, rose 1.3 percent to a three-week high of $35.55 in New York trading yesterday.
Apotheker declined to give a timeframe for deciding on webOS partners, saying “there is no time pressure to do this.”

Samsung Electronics Co. held talks to use WebOS in its smartphones, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions. Apotheker declined to say whether Hewlett-Packard and Samsung are having discussions, as did Jason Kim, a Samsung spokesman.

A partnership with Hewlett-Packard would allow Samsung, which uses Android for its Galaxy Tab tablet computers, to customize devices amid speculation that Google may restrict modifications for phones that use Android, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the talks are private.
Google, Samsung

Randall Sarafa, a spokesman for Google, referred to an April post on the company’s blog denying Android design restrictions, and declined to comment further.
“Samsung will continue to strengthen its relationship with Google to provide ultimate values to customers,” said Samsung’s Kim.

Hewlett-Packard is open to licensing its operating system if third-parties offer design and development improvements, said Jon Rubinstein, the executive in charge of developing WebOS, in an interview this month.

Apotheker, who told employees last month to brace for “another tough quarter” in the July period, said in March that HP plans to put WebOS into a broader range of products and ramp up output to more than 100 million devices a year.

Android may have recently experienced some defections among developers and consumers. In a June 20 report, Needham & Co. analyst Charlie Wolf said Android’s U.S. market share declined sequentially in the March quarter to 49.5 percent, from 52.4 percent. He predicted it will continue to decline, as more consumers opt for the Apple’s iPhone. Android’s global market share in the quarter increased.

[iam802]

Best Buy has only managed to sell 25k of HP Touchpad, with another 250k sitting in the warehouse.

In other words, HPQ is screwed for this initiative...and I think RIMM face the same fate. Ready to short RIMM again.

http://allthingsd.com/20110816/ouchpad- ... p-tablets/

[iam802]

Not surprising. The new CEO is a software guy from SAP.

This is a good move. IBM has done it many years back and they are much more focused and performing much better than HPQ


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HP to Spin Off PCs, Eyes Software Purchase

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-1 ... iness.html

[kennynah]

HPQ has been struggling with their product lines since 2002... even with the pruchase of compaq, they made no headways into the PC and PDA markets...

they are strong in their SAP services and that has been their money churner, competing against accenture, ibm, etc...

but i think they are not doing well as a company...