HP CEO says he didn't buy Palm for smartphones

[dcurtis]

But Palm wasn't a smartphone company, either. Rubinstein isn't an idiot; he knew about the iPad. He knows the future is in tablet/web devices. He worked extremely closely with Steve at Apple before joining Palm.

WebOS was built from the beginning to work in the situations Hurd is hinting at. To call WebOS "IP" kind of marginalizes its true significance. Palm was WebOS. HP bought WebOS.

[frossie]

But Palm wasn't a smartphone company, either.

Wasn't Treo the first device that could really be called a smartphone?

[bravura]

That's fine, because I buy Playboy for the articles.

[pstuart]

The articles are usually rather high quality (although it's been years since I've looked). It's too bad they don't sell a 'lite' version w/o the nude pix.

[jsz0]

The printer angle is not that exciting but definitely a welcomed change. HP has always lagged behind in this area. PC LOAD LETTER? It's not a big issue for simple inkjets or single function lasers but when you move up to the bigger multi-function, multi-tray, scanner, copier, coffee maker, toaster oven style devices having a good GUI is crucial. HP has gotten a lot better but they still lag behind Canon & Xerox. Even in the home inkjet market people are starting to expect more functionality out of a printer's front panel controls. (direct photo printing & e-mailing for example)

[GR8K]

"We have tens of millions of HP small form factor web-connected devices"

Is he referring to the iPaq? I thought those things run winmobile OS. hmm...so they'll have iPaq webOS devices?

There is more here about their other plans: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/hp-ceo-mark-hurd-talks-datacen...

[izendejas]

You either failed the read the sentence in its entirety or your sarcasm is nicely veiled. "... including but not limited to printers and tablets."

[SoftwareMaven]

I wonder if this comment is more about placating Microsoft until HP is ready to part company than about any real strategic direction at HP.

[izendejas]

I believe it's both, but the link above by GR8K I think clarifies HP's positioning: they want to sell companies the cloud infrastructure and the services to go along with them. It's a lucrative business, perhaps much more so than the smartphone space (especially when you realize smartphones will be commoditized like the PC at some point), but I don't know the numbers. They're up against IBM, Cisco, and a few others.

[sambeau]

Either way, it's still bad news for Windows Phone 7