HP Recognizes Need to Compete with Apple in Design Department
Hardware giant Hewlett-Packard has changed its mind a few times in recent years, especially when it comes to ultrabooks and mobile devices.
In response to the negative impact of mobile on global demand for PCs, the company – led at the time by Mark Hurd – acquired Palm and with it the webOS platform for over $1 billion. Leo Apotheker was appointed as Hurd’s successor shortly after the deal was announced, and the former SAP CEO took it upon himself to make Palm’s mobile OS a central element of a software strategy that never came to pass.
Apotheker, who among other things proposed to spin off HP’s $40 billion PC business, was replaced by Meg Whitman on September 2011. Today, under its third CEO in two years, Hewlett-Packard is hoping to revitalize its struggling consumer hardware business with a new line of high-end personal computers. The new PCs, which will run on the upcoming Windows 8, will launch just in time for the holiday shopping season.
“Stacy Wolff, one executive for Hewlett Packard, is the brains behind this new look,” reports ValueWalk. He explained that he uses a common color palette, standard logo size, and reduced components. The latter means that the frame should be made from a single piece of metal or plastic, rather than multiple pieces. Wolff said that he hopes it looks cleaner and more minimalist.”
HP has doubled the size of its PC design team to 60 and opened two new centers, but that may not change the fact there may not be room for another Apple in the industry.
At the same time, Hewlett-Packard, which retains its position as the number 1 vendor in the PC market, is losing market share to Lenovo and mobile. But while webOS may be all but abandoned now the vendor’s mobile strategy is not thanks to the recent foundation of the new Mobility subsidiary, headed by a former Nokia hot-shot.
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