Oh how easy it is to forget
Much as I recall with annoyance that HP didn't ship W2k drivers for the Deskjet I'd bought (ain't bought HP since on principle), that they divested themselves of what is now Agilent thus discarding their soul, that they acquired then binned most of DECs finest and ditched their own processor line too, that a once fine company reduced itself to little more than a commodity x86 box maker with an expensive line of ink and toner on the side, it's nice to see that there remains at least a spark creativity.
If HP can pull this off then I might even cheer, and I'll probably be grateful one way or another. It will be an enourmous break through. If it works how can it fail to take over from almost every non-volatile storage mechanism that mankind currently has? That's an enourmous market, and it could all belong to HP in years to come.
But you have to wonder why HP's management decided over the years that all that R&D heritage and expertise wasn't worth it. Look at IBM - there's a company that's still not afraid to spend on fundamental R&D, and look at how well they do. If HP can do this with whatever's left in their R&D budget, what might they have achieved if they'd kept all that they'd once had?
Bean counters. Bastards.