HP kicks Leo out; appoints Meg Whitman as new CEO

Well, maybe all is not lost after all… HP has just appointed eBay’s ex-CEO, Meg Whitman, as their new CEO; removing Leo Apotheker from the driver’s seat. Maybe HP will now rethink that move to split off their PC making division and we might still see new Pavilions and EliteBooks in 2012 and beyond. While that’s nice and really makes my day at least, I still don’t think she (HP’s new CEO) will bring back WebOS from the dead… or she might, seeing HP has been essentially like a long limousine trying to do tight corners and drifts; a huge company which has been changing its mind a lot, too frequently and drastically. Without Leo, perhaps things will change for the better. We can only hope.

And now, we’ll be back to grinding away and bringing you HP news on a frequent basis again, though the rumor mills have been relatively dry and slow after last month’s corporate announcements by HP.

Failure of HP’s mobile (web)OS: I saw it coming and I told you so

It’s funny (in a sad way) how the future can be so drastically affected by the past.  Yesterday’s incident of the demise of webOS and HP’s mobile division did not come as a surprise to me (though the announcement of the potential consideration of breaking off their PC division did) because it almost took the “cause and effects” right out of my mouth in an article I wrote 16 months ago here on HP Fansite.

Back then, HP was pretty much minding its own business and Palm wasn’t up for sale yet. Microsoft had just done away with Windows Mobile and was trying to create a fresh start with their Windows Phone 7 platform, on which they included HP as one of the planned phone makers. I remember I was jumping for joy, having been a long time user of HP iPAQ phones for a long time (I was on my fourth iPAQ model, the Data Messenger, during then) and Windows Phone, I mentioned, would be a great chance and window of opportunity for HP to rise again in the smartphone market.

Microsoft and HP had had a lot going on at that time and I wrote about how HP absolutely needed to stick to Windows on their phones, instead of joining the Android gang or coming up with their own OS (which they essentially did later on by buying Palm and making webOS “theirs”), for so many reasons. The most they could do was try to get Microsoft to make an exception and allow them to ‘skin’ (have a theme of their own) Windows Phone 7… but I knew HP managing their own OS would be biting off more than they could chew and was against that idea.

Yup, I said it all and pretty much saw this coming. HP did all those things, things they shouldn’t have done. I didn’t have any insider information at all (heck, Palm wasn’t even up for sale during then!) but I wasn’t guessing either – I looked at the way HP had been doing things and their performance – and an analysis of that in my mind told me no way, with their computers, printers, workstations and operations in general combined with “the HP way” of doing things, could they manage having an OS of their own.

And to add to the bag of hurt, HP backed out of Microsoft’s list of potential Windows Phone 7 smartphone makers (instead of making Pre and Pixi ‘webOS phones’ alongside iPAQ ‘Windows phones’) and back to that article I wrote last year, I did say “it’s not how well features sell, but how well you sell your features“. In the case of webOS, HP didn’t manage to sell their features to consumers very well at all.

• To name some examples, they didn’t elaborate what “true multitasking” meant and why consumers needed it (Versus Apple’s and Microsoft’s app-pausing multitasking)…
• they had “Just Type” which was counter-natural for many (because most folks KNOW what they’re going to do, hit the correct app for email/browsing/texting/notes/etc before typing stuff out; Just Type tried to sell “typing stuff out before you know what you’re doing”, which isn’t practical unless you’re an artist of sorts who always has “spur of the moment ideas”)…
• and then they had Russell Brand try to promote the HP TouchPad in spots that I saw as ‘trying to appeal to the serious user’. If they had used someone like Leonardo Dicaprio or George Clooney for that, it MIGHT have worked better. But anyone would know that Russell Brand =/= Serious user…
• plus, they seem to have forgotten Marketing 101 and I didn’t see much effort in trying to promote webOS devices to women! And just an observation, majority of iPad users I see are mostly females… college girls who want something thin and light for taking notes, mothers who get it as entertainment devices for their kids (drawing and sketching apps and whatnot). Not to sound feminist here, but just a couple of facts: there are more women than men in the world and in today’s world where women are getting just as tech savvy as their female counterparts, one would expect companies to market their stuff to both genders

Again, I encourage you to read what I wrote last year and by the end of it, you might just think ‘Oh my gosh, it’s like he had a crystal ball or time travel machine or something’. Nope, I have none of that: just sense and skill of analyzing things.

Time to get over things and just let WebOS die

Just face the facts everyone: WebOS is pretty much dead. There’s been a lot of chatter on the net in the last 24 hours about the fate and future potential of WebOS. And though you’ll probably hate me for saying it, I hate to break it to you but it’s time for a wake up call to face the facts (and reality): Palm and WebOS are dead. Period. And I’m not saying because I’m trolling, I’m not saying it because I want to ruin anyone’s weekend… I’m saying it because that’s precisely the way it is.

Those hopes of WebOS being licensed out to another company, or being bought out by HTC or Samsung or Google? Probably just a dream or thoughts manifested from folks who drank one too many beers last night. WebOS has already failed twice: Once in the hands of Palm, and this time under the HP umbrella. I think that really says something about WebOS and where it belongs: In the dusty “obsolete” drawer, never to be seen or heard from again… just like its predecessor, PalmOS. The fact that it has failed twice before in a short gap of less than 3 years will really scare off investors of companies who could be potential buyers.

WebOS has never been that appealing to the average Joe, except to a small community of Palm loyalists, which doesn’t spell out ‘big blockbuster success’… the important thing for smartphones is to attract the large crowds because THAT is the market that makes you money. Palm didn’t market it effectively enough but HP came along and seemed to have done the wrong thing: they did the opposite things for their EliteBook business laptops and WebOS devices. Let me elaborate:

• For whatever reason it was, HP decided to try to make their 2011 EliteBook models look as appealing as possible to the masses with that ‘MacBook esque’ redesign, funky 16:9 displays (because businessmen, CAD designers, engineers and specialists in industries want to watch movies on their Mobile Workstations?) and general dumbing down of the EliteBooks in terms of design and even minor differences which, they should have realized, will NOT go overlooked by serious users when they should have listened to the EliteBook user base who want substance over style and function over form. As an EliteBook user myself, I really couldn’t care less if my EliteBook had “Beats Audio” (because serious users tend not to fall for marketing garbage!) or that bling shiny backlit HP logo on the lid. What we really wanted was DreamColor IPS displays deployed across the EliteBook line, better heat management and more quality control, more flexibility and performance.
• Conversely, they seemed to have tried to cater to the small group of legacy/Palm fans by making tiny tweaks to WebOS and trying to encourage app development… but not much else. That, of course, wasn’t enough to make a difference in trying to get WebOS to the top. Simply put, they had to make huge changes to the OS and market it more for general consumers to buy it. Things like “true” multitasking with app “cards” or a neater notifications system, were never good enough reasons for regular folks to buy a HP WebOS device over a more powerful phone running iOS, Android or Windows Phone. That, and HP failed to have any ‘flagship’ superphone which might have given WebOS a fighting chance to survive.

Had they swapped strategies: Listen to the small userbase for their business products and try to cater to the masses for consumer products (eg Smartphones!), things would likely be different today.

Then there’s the blame game and I do not deny that HP made a bad choice by acquiring Palm. The morning I read about HP’s purchase of Palm, I facepalmed (Palm was dying back then) and silently doubted the ability to make Palm and WebOS a success. Nope, let’s make it clear: It’s not HP’s fault that Palm is a failure, but they are at fault for acquiring Palm in the first place! It was a waste of $1.2 billion which HP could have jolly well used to revive and improve the iPAQ line. HP makes weird decisions: in 2006 they were one of the market leaders in the smartphone industry (which I know, it’s hard to believe now that we’re in 2011) but we were already seeing HP getting kind of sluggish in coming up with new smartphone models… I wrote about all that here.

HP was given a chance to revive the iPAQ last February when Microsoft listed them as one of their “then-to-be-launched Windows Phone 7″ partners, that I even wrote an in-depth analysis and strategy flow about it. HP would later drop out of Microsoft’s Windows Phone party list and buy Palm just a few months down the road. Palm was essentially a dead company walking during the time it got sold HP… no one should have ever touched Palm and just let them die. For whatever reason the acquisition was made, HP’s choice to buy Palm, combined with existing sluggishness in developing their existing iPAQ smartphone line AND insufficient efforts to make WebOS a success essentially meant that the Palm acquisition did nothing to revive the brand or OS, but merely prolong its life by another painful few months before its eventual, impending and expected, death yesterday.

And what of the future? Nothing – there is none for WebOS. HP already chose to melt away the ‘Palm’ name over a year ago. If past performance is any indicator of future events, WebOS is just dead. Not a decade ago, HP bought over Compaq and that name was used more and more sparsely until it eventually disappeared from HP’s notebook naming convention in America (though some low end “HP Compaq” notebooks do continue to be sold in Europe and Asia; essentially rebranded versions of HP’s Pavilion g-series entry-level offerings). Then HP bought Rahul Sood’s VoodooPC gaming computer company… that name too was eventually quashed and never heard from again. Even worse, HP even stopped making gaming computers shortly after and the only thing that remains from VoodooPC now is the ‘Envy’ name you see with HP’s Envy notebooks.

WebOS’ fate, I predict, will be no different… the change has already begun and in a few months, WebOS would be nothing more than a mere memory, remembered only by Palm loyalists and the small group of fans.

HP Fansite is here to stay!

There may be plenty of tossing and turning on HP’s part today which may change the computer industry (it already changed the smartphone/mobile field with the loss of one beloved mobile OS today. WebOS rest in peace, you will be missed). In today’s ever changing landscape, one thing frequently leads or affects another, and people are forced to adapt or risk extinction.

It is sad to face the possibility that our love and intense coverage of HP computers and smartphones may not make it past HP Fansite’s third birthday/anniversary, should HP decide to sell off their PC division. But I’m here to assure you that…

HP Fansite will continue to be around and be as relevant as ever to you!

HP Fansite has been the net’s top unofficial place for Hewlett Packard users to congregate and many relationships, ties and bonds between users, staff and such have been formed through discussions and sharing of information here. It would be a shame to see our loyal readers go their separate ways and cause that all go to waste. Which is why we’re not going to let that happen!

IF HP decides to go ahead and sell away their PC business, HP Fansite will turn to cover tech hardware, smartphone and computing news in general (meaning we’ll be doing the same thing as we’re doing now, without limiting the scope to Hewlett Packard as we’re doing now). And what will set us apart from the one billion other tech sites out there will be:

• We’re dedicated and passionate about what we do. We’re not robotic writers and there’s no “tech editor” forced to write news for ten bucks an hour for a desk job here! We cover tech because we enjoy doing it! That means articles with a personal touch, no regurgitation of specifications sheet, no blabbering about 100 technical terms without caring whether you understand them or not.
• We’re readers too! We know exactly what you want, and that is to not be bombarded with several dozen news articles a day, of which probably 80% you may not find useful or relevant. We know you don’t want to waste your time reading about another article about some crazy robot or gimmicky gadget, when you want to look for information on what smartphone app you should get next, what laptop to buy for school, for gaming, for work; what software works the best for photo, video editing… you get the gist.

We did a soft-launch in May on our gaming website, Games Per Second, which we had originally planned as a “spin off site” on gaming… but if HP Fansite turns out to cover tech hardware, then Games Per Second could be the perfect complement to this site! Games Per Second is ‘officially’ launching on September 1, where articles and reviews will go full-steam ahead, so mark your calendars and remember to check it out!

We’re hoping HP will continue to make PCs, but that’s our contingency plan if anything weird happens. We want you readers to know we’re not going to just flip over and die just like that (we’re not going to become the “Hush Puppies Fansite” either, though)

On a personal note, I’m planning to build a desktop of my own using an HP Z-series workstation chassis (either using a HP Z600 or Z800 ‘empty’ base chassis… I need to work out a budget), configured with my own parts and components. I’m excited, and it likely has to happen since the HP EliteBook 8740w I’m using at the moment has recently developed overheating issues (And besides, I don’t really “own” it), because when it happens, it will be my first time using a desktop as a primary computer in many, many years! Not to mention the beautiful graphics and detail intensity it will bring to games with that amount of power. I’ll keep you guys posted for sure!

Got thoughts, suggestions or comments on the future of HP Fansite? Leave a message in the comments section or send me an email at the following address:

HP abandons WebOS, feels like moving away from computers to software; HPFansite’s future now at stake

A massive earthquake (figuratively) occurred at HP today and there’s a ton of news and changes that might just change EVERYTHING (in a not so good way). First off, the biggest chunk of news that’s bound to disappoint many WebOS fans: HP will quote “discontinue operations for WebOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and WebOS phones“, which in English means they’re effectively going to kill (or already have?) the Palm legacy and WebOS. No more WebOS smartphones or tablets! Yup, end of the road for those devices, so long and goodbye (and absolutely zero hope for an iPAQ revival).

HP did spend $1.2 billion on acquiring Palm so it makes sense that WebOS fansite, PreCentral, has reported HP might not flush WebOS and Palm down the drain and opt to sell (or license) it off instead, though things are still looking very bleak for HP’s mobile division (if you can call it that). I’m personally skeptical about another company taking over Palm or continuing WebOS. The ecosystem has already failed twice (once with Palm, and now, with HP) so unless a company is absolutely willing to take a risk to resurrect WebOS and Palm’s legacy for the third time (and how will said mythical company’s board of directors and investors react if that were to happen?), the system is essentially dead.

Many users on the net are hoping HTC might be that buyer should a sale of WebOS/Palm occur, but HTC has moved on to Android and Windows Phone (and recently acquired a commanding stake at Beats Audio) so it’s doubtful they’ll be looking back at WebOS when they’ve already got their hands full and enjoying quite a bit of success in the market.

So much for the HP Pre 3 making it anywhere outside of the UK… and that 7 inch TouchPad will never see the light of day. Though strangely enough, HP did announce a 64 GB variant of the TouchPad tablet earlier today, which is very peculiar indeed. I wondering how tempted consumers will be to buy a product which is essentially obsolete in terms of support (deja vu as I wondered the same thing about Microsoft’s Zune media players; though Microsoft’s move was a good and justified one as they were shifting to focus on Windows Phone 7).

Next up, HP is contemplating a huge move to sell off its PC division and shift its focus to software! Yes, it’s big news that’s maddening to hear that HP is even having THOUGHTS about selling off their Personal Systems Group division (responsible for their PCs and computers). It’s really awful alright. Personally I am devastated because I have grown up (Yes, I’m not old!) on HP (and previously, Compaq) computers and laptops.

Unlike the WebOS door-closing, this part about the PC division hasn’t been confirmed… but don’t go out for cookies and milk to celebrate just yet, because Bloomberg has mentioned a decision could come as early as later today (!). If it happens, HP expects a transition phase of 12 to 18 months for things to finalize and complete… sounds like a reasonable amount of time for us fanboys to cry and get over it and run out to buy a Vaio Z! If this sounds familiar, yes, IBM did something similar when they turned things over to Lenovo, and IBM ThinkPads became Lenovo ThinkPads… same heritage yet some things will never be the same again.

In my opinion, I think that’s not too brilliant of them, to get all hurt about their PC division (and HP IS the number 1 PC manufacturer in the world) and want to get rid of it just because it isn’t bringing in ENOUGH margins and profit. Look at IBM and Lenovo. Sure IBM may be still around and pretty successful nowadays, but I only knew that because I went to look them up on Google and Wikipedia… I haven’t heard about IBM at all, besides the occasional ‘fastest supercomputer achievement’ news, since they sold their PC-making business to Lenovo. Same case with the average consumer… ask them what a ThinkPad is and they’ll probably know, ask them about IBM and many will be “say what? What’s an IBM?” (Especially true with younger consumers), and tell them “did you know IBM originally made ThinkPads” and you’re likely to get “Like what? Did they now?”.

HP plans to move from the hardware business to software… which is slightly questionable too, since I have never been a fan of the pre-installed bloatware bundled software on their computers. They are acquiring a software company, Autonomy Corp for a whopping $10 billion. Well, HP, I hope you’ve done your homework on one, the level of software piracy that exists out there, and two, what kind of software you will be making that people would possibly want to buy. We’ve got Microsoft, Google and Apple for operating systems, Adobe, Corel and Autodesk for graphics software, individual smaller developers and “micro”-companies making mobile apps, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for social networking, WordPress and Movable Type for blogging platforms, and the list goes on.

Granted it MIGHT be interesting if HP decides to go the software route, but extremely depressing if they gave the brand and job of making PCs to someone else. Then we would have to rename this place the “whoever HP decides to sell their PSG to”-fansite.com. Also, by doing that, HP might possibly go the way of IBM… still alive but never to be heard from again by ‘regular Joe’ consumers. Well, maybe not entirely, since they haven’t said anything about their printers, so we might see HP printers for a while.

The potential sale of the PSG division also begs the question about higher end product lines like their Z-workstation (Z800, mmm, yummy!) computers as well as ‘PC accessories’ such as HP monitors… will those go away too? This is a serious question; anyone with information, do email me. Because who’s going to make those lovely DreamColor displays?! And who is DreamWorks going to work with when it comes to computers used to create and process their movies?

And finally, the future of HP Fansite might be on a bit of a limbo in terms of coverage. If HP goes through with selling away their PC business, we won’t be covering “HP computers” anymore, but instead we might cover “whoever buys HP’s PSG”‘s computers. What do you guys think? I would love to hear from loyal readers. Deep inside, I’m still passionate to cover tech news that interests me, so we might continue to do that but talk about computers on a basis that extends beyond discussing a single brand. No worries though, this site will always be around, it’s just a matter of what readers want to see covered. And it’s always fun and great talking and emailing you guys (special thanks to our frequent readers).

Alright, that’s all I have to say for now. We haven’t received official word on what HP is going to do exactly, neither have they made a decision, but the previous paragraph was just a pre-emptive statement/assurance that HP Fansite ain’t closing down regardless of what HP decides to do (heck we might just turn into Hush Puppies Fansite or Harry Potter Fansite… oops, I forgot, Harry Potter just ended with their last movie, so much for that idea).

P.S. I have been working on Games Per Second, a place that covers video games (long time HP Fansite readers know I’m an avid PC gamer!) which was initially conceived as an off-shoot site so folks wanting to read HP news won’t have to bump into the occasional PC game review or mad-hatter videos of racing Lamborghinis on EliteBooks. But if, in an unexpected turn of events occurs at HP which causes HP Fansite to cover computer hardware, processors, graphics card and the like in general, then Games Per Second would make a good complement/sister site… because most gamers are PC enthusiasts and most PC enthusiasts are gamers, am I right?