HP's 'vision' should embrace Apple, not copy it Hewlett-Packard needs to grow, but its chief executive Leo Apotheker has made it very clear that he intends to boost HP's fortunes in a very non-Oracle sort of way. That is, rather than buying the past - snapping up legacy software companies and essentially buying their customer relationships and maintenance revenue streams - …
The author mentions they need to "work with Apple" rather than try to copy Apple.
...What?
This isn't hold hands and love each other land, this is business. Apple won't let their own users have control over their devices, why would they EVER work with a competitor? No, distancing from Apple is a good idea. All they have is marketing, a wolf in sheep's clothing.
What HP DOES need to do is make sure Google's Linux OS (Android) and their own Linux OS (WebOS) play nice together. Software and "apps" need to work seamlessly from Android to WebOS and Enterprise integration needs to be top notch. Then we'll get somewhere.
@Bullseyed: You said:
"The author mentions they need to "work with Apple" rather than try to copy Apple."
Ummm... No, he didn't. What he said was:
"HP would be far better off creating an ecosystem optimized for HP devices but that also embraces other devices, including Apple's."
If you hadn't had those "Apple sux!" blinkers on, your last paragraph might have accurately portrayed what the author was actually saying:
"Software and 'apps' need to work seamlessly from Android to WebOS --> to iOS <-- and Enterprise integration needs to be top notch. Then we'll get somewhere."
In short, HP's Cloud should be platform/OS-agnostic, drawing users to their services whatever tool they prefer to use to get there.
It seems to me they're getting the importance of cross-platfrom apps, but that their strategy is to get webOS-apps to be able to run on all relevant platforms. webOS is after all quite web-heavy, so downplay the OS part and it might just be what you're looking for.
It will be very interesting to see what happens, some open action is badly needed in these days of iPhone-apps.
The good news is that HP bought Palm. The bad news is that HP bought Palm.
Since they spent all that money buying Palm, they have to show that it was a good investment. But in a year or two or more, if they find out that pushing WebOS is a bad strategy, will they be willing to admit their mistake?
They definitely keep everything segmented currently to "prove" that it was a good investment, and that is part of the problem. HP is turning into a frankenstein monster of firms stitched together instead of a fully integrated company. That is why you see trouble with defining their vision, the firm's culture is too fragmented. They need to slow down a little and finish up with 3PAR 3COM and LeftHand before moving to Palm and beyond into software.
It is the age of shambling zombie corporations. Once lively and fleet of foot, they now roam the world to feast on those still living and productive. Brains and talent ripped out and devoured in greed, with nothing at the end of the day to show for it except more corpses and undigested great ideas, products and talent slowly decomposing within the putrid frame of the mega-corp as it shambles it way to a fresh victim.
>an ecosystem optimized for HP devices but that also embraces other devices, including Apple's. That sort of open standards approach<
Hmm. Apple and open standards in the same paragraph? Good grief, what's next: Microsoft embracing open standards?
PS - I would have added evil billg along with evil steve, but we're limited to a single icon here. bah.
large pieces of WebOS client code just needs a webkit browser to run. None of the cloud pieces are device specific. So if they do a good job with WebOS and allow distribution of the enyo framework, we might just end up with rich client apps that run on most devices (read: iOS & Android) and all talk together via the cloud nicely. It will be a few months before we know for sure hw it's going to play out, and year to see it all realized. I'm personally optimistic.
I do believe you just read my mind, admittedly it's a quick read with little character development but I digress. As I was reading the article it occurred to me that unifying "da cloud" required some form of "killer app" and I thought, why can't that be WebOS? I got stuck on the Apple will never allow it, but of course running in a browser means who gives a damn what Apple will allow. Sort of a WebOS meets eyeOS, what a wonderful world.
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