
HP CEO says he didn't buy Palm for smartphones - aaronbrethorst
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/06/02/hp-ceo-says-he-didnt-buy-palm-for-smartphones/
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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.

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frossie
_But Palm wasn't a smartphone company, either._

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

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count
Hasn't the treo been irrelevant for years? That would be like calling HP a
calculator company.

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

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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.

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mahmud
Rolling Stone Magazine is Playboy Lite.

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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)

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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...](http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/hp-ceo-mark-
hurd-talks-datacenters-networking-and-palm/35312)

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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."

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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.

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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.

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

