HP shareholders question why company isn't more like Apple

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  • Reply 81 of 129
    cityguidecityguide Posts: 129member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


    the shareholders are stakeholders too, but that is beside the point.



    Which areas can HP go into or expand with a High Quality/High Profit marketing model?



    Could they sell enough super duper photo printers? Or expensive laptops? Super duper calculator/tablets for engineers? Super heavy duty tablets and laptops for roughnecks?



    Or what?



    I'm really curious about what you may have had in mind.



    I would add mdriftmeyer's quote here also, as anantksundaram did, and dtidmore's as well. They are well worth the read, and I can't help but feel our shared experiences were separated only by class schedules (or stops in the Bear Lair).



    My fantasy about HP has them re-purchasing Agilent. Ain't gonna happen, so:



    1. Throw massive amounts of money into webOS. Make it the software bridge for a wide range of devices. Make it extensible, support it like mad, have a paid model while allowing the open source community to perform tweaks.



    2. Build a hardware bridge between true test/monitoring devices and the iPad/iPhone. Reach out to Agilent or Apple if you need to, but you can carve a high-end market for people who want to do atmospheric testing or install control systems at home or garage. Or as a hobby. That market is filled with multiple but different solutions, and the audience has already proven the will spend money for value. Here, webOS is your Rosetta stone and development platform to build this bridge.



    3. Combining the PC/Printer business was a good move, but you now have to slash the product line by half. There is just too much of it. In two years time, present your integrated webOS hardware platform that will deliver the tightly-integrated-with-hardware ecosystem that Apple provides. Position it at a level where the hobbyists and test engineers will see the value in the $3K to $5K entry-level systems. Or go bigger, but be bold and show the world what they do not know they need.
  • Reply 82 of 129
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bedouin View Post


    These are the kind of answers Sarah Palin gives because she has no original or noteworthy ideas in her head.



    Why do extreme liberals bring politics into a thread that has nothing to do with politics?



    And since you brought up the topic, FYI, Obama has no original or noteworthy ideas in his head. He's totally clueless and has done great damage to the USA. He is bad for business, he is bad for the economy and he's a total hypocrite, not to mention a liar. I'm not sure if Obama's qualified to shine my shoes.
  • Reply 83 of 129
    conrailconrail Posts: 489member
    You know, all this stuff about innovation, vision, etc. is lovely and all, but I think what the shareholders are really asking is:



    WHY HASN'T MY HP STOCK RISEN IN VALUE 600% IN THE LAST 6 YEARS?!?!?
  • Reply 84 of 129
    bedouinbedouin Posts: 331member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Why do extreme liberals bring politics into a thread that has nothing to do with politics?



    And since you brought up the topic, FYI, Obama has no original or noteworthy ideas in his head. He's totally clueless and has done great damage to the USA. He is bad for business, he is bad for the economy and he's a total hypocrite, not to mention a liar. I'm not sure if Obama's qualified to shine my shoes.



    Not a liberal (or conservative). Obama is a disingenuous scumbag like Bush with better oratory skills.
  • Reply 85 of 129
    x38x38 Posts: 97member
    I'm amazed at how long the entire rest of the industry is content to let Apple run away with all the money. You'd think at least one other player would by now have tried to follow Apple in the one thing they still do differently than everyone else - vertical integration. The commoditized hardware market that came about thanks to Microsoft and the PC cloner industry worked well in the PC market for the past thirty years, but it was an aberration of unique times and is not a good business model for the future. Apple has decisively proven it is not a good fit for the post PC market and probably not even a good model for the PC market anymore.

    It's long past time for a real competitor to Apple to emerge.

    HP could be it if they play their cards right. They have good software IP for the post PC market with WebOS if they'd use it. The best move though would be for HP and Microsoft to merge and drop Windows support for third party hardware.
  • Reply 86 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post


    ...Cook has already demonstrtated that he is more about business than Jobs was.



    How so? Just because you asserted it?
  • Reply 87 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fotoformat View Post


    What a grim smile... are those her upper or lower teeth?



    It doesn't matter. Won't save HP.
  • Reply 88 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    Why do extreme liberals bring politics into a thread that has nothing to do with politics?



    And since you brought up the topic, FYI, Obama has no original or noteworthy ideas in his head. He's totally clueless and has done great damage to the USA. He is bad for business, he is bad for the economy and he's a total hypocrite, not to mention a liar. I'm not sure if Obama's qualified to shine my shoes.



    You may be right about Apple (and Android) 100% of the time, but this one is a fail. I don't think any serious, fair-minded person remotely thinks there's much of a comparison in terms of intellect there.



    (Fwiw, I don't consider myself particularly political one way or the other, except for the fact that I dislike frauds of all stripes).
  • Reply 89 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by X38 View Post


    It's long past time for a real competitor to Apple to emerge.



    This is so true. What a mass of wasted talent and money in this sector.



    That said, I am happy if competitors can wait until after my kids are done with college! Uncles Steve and Cook were/are their money managers....
  • Reply 90 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bedouin View Post


    Not a liberal (or conservative). Obama is a disingenuous scumbag like Bush with better oratory skills.



    Seriously, I didn't come here to hear anyone's opinion on this politician or that. I'd like to hear what people think of HP and how it relates to Apple. Meg Whitman's answers are a tad on the defensive/weak side, but her job to save HP is not an easy one, and I wouldn't call her a failure if it doesn't work out. However, she is right about focusing on HP's strengths, whatever they are. They shouldn't try to be Apple, they should be the best HP and nothing else. Apple's strengths were Steve's strengths--and you can't duplicate that without a Steve Jobs-type leader at HP. But they don't need that. HP should go back to basics and figure out what they are the best at, reclaim that and grow from there. Right now, they do so many things, they're not necessarily the best at anything. HP is, like so many other big tech companies, the great middle-of-the-road average.
  • Reply 91 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by maccherry View Post


    To be fare to Meg, who in my opinion is out the door in a year or less, HP has peaked and is now a planned obsolescence , 5000 pound lazy a$$ gorilla.



    Their printers are cheap with over priced ink.

    Their pcs are nothing but wintel boxes with their effing name stamped on the side.

    Their calculator are pathetic now. Tell me why the f*** do their high end graphing calcs still use the same damn UI from 20 years ago?



    Here is an interesting mind experiment:



    What do you think would happen if HP were to maximize the quality of their printers and double their price -- and reduce the price of the ink for these printers?



  • Reply 92 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cycomiko View Post


    How would have the world been if HP forced ownership on Woz for the Apple I



    Would like to retake that question in English?
  • Reply 93 of 129
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by atsysusa View Post


    Would like to retake that question in English?



    "What would the world be like had HP asserted their right to ownership of the Apple I design? Woz' contract stipulated that any outside work he did while at HP was to be presented to them before he could monetize it externally."
  • Reply 94 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    Talent. Talent. Talent.



    Meg was turned down for work at Apple.



    HP stopped being considered innovative around 1994.



    Sun Engineers I used to eat lunch with wanted to work at NeXT and later Apple.



    It starts at the top. You cannot create a Steve Jobs. You cannot create a Jony Ivy.



    Very few companies have natural leaders. Lots of narcissism, but very little leadership.



    Imagination and a high aesthetic for taste and how to shape it is not taught. You discover it or your do not. Lots of friends come from various engineering, liberal arts and business backgrounds.



    All talented to do tasks, when a solid vision is in place. Creating that vision is an entirely different ball of wax. It either surfaces as a child and grows from there as you get older or it does not.



    Meg couldn't lead a creative, highly driven engineering vision to fruition due to having none of these qualities in her.



    Odd, weird and unique were all qualities described of Steve as he grew up and developed Apple, then NeXT, PIXAR and back at Apple.



    There are tons of degrees in the Valley. Not so much when it comes to personalities that stand out in a crowd.



    Steven P. Jobs is an original. It's not something you see more than once or twice in a life time.



    I totally agree! I tried to distill the essence of Steve Jobs into a single word...



    The best I could come up with:



    Vision, leadership... Maybe someone could coin a new word or redefine "Jobsian".



  • Reply 95 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techboy View Post


    When HP starts to innovate and actually deliver better products...NOT just cheap...they got a long way to catch up or Apple can start sinking like a ship with these rumors of smaller ipad or larger iphone.



    Mmm... You're calling HP "sinking ship"...



    Appears the 1st word is missing a letter -- and the 2nd word has a wrong letter
  • Reply 96 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by simtub View Post


    Apple is Apple because of Steve Jobs, his Vision and his ability to hire great people. Nuff Said.



    What about Mike Markkula who had the vision and invested his $ and his time to take an under financed hobbyist startup and make it into a viable company -- which defined "personal computer".



    Not to demean Steve Jobs... But there were other visionaries too!

  • Reply 97 of 129
    Oh, what a good question!



    It is the question that should be asked of the CEOs of the vast majority of large mulinational corporations who still insist on manufacturing and selling cheap and crappy products in their never-ending race to the bottom. When will these corporate zombies ever learn that consumers really will pay premium prices for really good products that actually do what they want them to do, and do it with minimal stuffing around.
  • Reply 98 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bullhead View Post


    ...



    HP had a shot with the Palm OS to actually be innovative and break free from the Microsoft cloner market. but they killed that. No cloner will ever be like Apple while they are a slave to Microsoft for the heart of the computers/phones/tablets.



    That's an interesting point!



    HP cancelled WebOS and the TouchPad on Aug 19, 2011.



    Many thought the OS and the Device second to iOS and iPad 2.



    In addition HP was working on using WebOS to control their printers... and providing a WebOS skin for HP desktop -- especially models with touch screens.



    In a way, this put HP about a year ahead of Microsoft (skinning Windows 7 with Metro) and first to market with multituch desktops...



    They just pissed away their market advantage -- then didn't have sense enough to correct it in the months that followed...



    Sad... just sad! \



  • Reply 99 of 129
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    What about Mike Markkula who had the vision and invested his $ and his time to take an under financed hobbyist startup and make it into a viable company -- which defined "personal computer".



    Not to demean Steve Jobs... But there were other visionaries too!



    Looks like the whole culture around Palo Alto was rife with turned-on visionaries at the time of Apple's founding, EXCEPT at the management level at companies like HP and Xerox.



    So it seems they lost the vision race right from the beginning. Apple attracted the Hertzfelds and the Atkinsons and I presume the Applebaums, and the die was cast.



    There's a culture divide to this day. I'd go so far as to say, no turn on, no vision, but that's just me.
  • Reply 100 of 129
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nicroma View Post


    The proportions of her face are hurting my brain.



    She has a fivehead.
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