Take Two and Call Me In The Morning
Tablets are in the news again. Hewlett-Packard has just announced that it will have a new tablet computer out soon, running Microsoft's Windows 8 Pro operating system. The tablet is geared toward the business market. This will be HP's third shot at the post-PC market, and there's no particular reason to believe that the third time will be a charm.
HP started off launching the Touchpad, an underpowered device designed by the Company Once Known As Palm, whose assets were acquired by HP. The Touchpad ran an interesting operating system that Palm had created to be the long-overdue successor to the venerable PalmOS. HP quickly realized that it wasn't going to make it. The Touchpad had no infrastructure and few were interested in developing apps for WebOS. They discontinued the product and sold off the stock at firesale prices. WebOS is being released into the public domain.
HP's current tablet is called the Slate, and it runs Windows 7, an operating system not optimized for tablets. Sales are underwhelming.
The 800 pound gorilla in the marketplace is Apple. The third generation full-sized iPad is midway through its product cycle. It is the tablet everyone else is trying to slavishly imitate while differentiating themselves enough to avoid Apple's massive legal team. Said legal team includes Boston giant Wilmer Hale and San Francisco's mighty MoFo: Morrison Foerster, both currently representing Apple in the 2.5 billion dollar suit against Samsung.
Samsung has a new tablet out. It's different. It has a stylus.
There's been some interesting competition in the mini-tablet market. A new Kindle Fire is expected shortly from Amazon, and Google is on track to sell 8 million seven-inch Nexus models this year. Apple has yet to formally announce the hotly anticipated iPad mini, but rumors are that it will go on sale in October and that Apple expects to sell 10 million in the single quarter between then and the end of the year.
HP's forthcoming tablet will run Windows 8, an operating system designed for tablets (and unfortunately not designed for laptops, if the imprecations heard over the cubicle wall from one of my colleagues are anything to go by). They will be competing directly with Microsoft itself, who announced their own Surface tablets in June.
But who knows? HP might be successful. I hope they are, seeing as they announced their earnings today. They reported a net loss of 8.85 billion (with a "B") dollars for the quarter just ended. In Financial Report-speak, it's a "tough macroeconomic and competitive environment."
HP started off launching the Touchpad, an underpowered device designed by the Company Once Known As Palm, whose assets were acquired by HP. The Touchpad ran an interesting operating system that Palm had created to be the long-overdue successor to the venerable PalmOS. HP quickly realized that it wasn't going to make it. The Touchpad had no infrastructure and few were interested in developing apps for WebOS. They discontinued the product and sold off the stock at firesale prices. WebOS is being released into the public domain.
HP's current tablet is called the Slate, and it runs Windows 7, an operating system not optimized for tablets. Sales are underwhelming.
The 800 pound gorilla in the marketplace is Apple. The third generation full-sized iPad is midway through its product cycle. It is the tablet everyone else is trying to slavishly imitate while differentiating themselves enough to avoid Apple's massive legal team. Said legal team includes Boston giant Wilmer Hale and San Francisco's mighty MoFo: Morrison Foerster, both currently representing Apple in the 2.5 billion dollar suit against Samsung.
Samsung has a new tablet out. It's different. It has a stylus.
There's been some interesting competition in the mini-tablet market. A new Kindle Fire is expected shortly from Amazon, and Google is on track to sell 8 million seven-inch Nexus models this year. Apple has yet to formally announce the hotly anticipated iPad mini, but rumors are that it will go on sale in October and that Apple expects to sell 10 million in the single quarter between then and the end of the year.
HP's forthcoming tablet will run Windows 8, an operating system designed for tablets (and unfortunately not designed for laptops, if the imprecations heard over the cubicle wall from one of my colleagues are anything to go by). They will be competing directly with Microsoft itself, who announced their own Surface tablets in June.
But who knows? HP might be successful. I hope they are, seeing as they announced their earnings today. They reported a net loss of 8.85 billion (with a "B") dollars for the quarter just ended. In Financial Report-speak, it's a "tough macroeconomic and competitive environment."