HP CEO Wants HP To Be As Cool As Apple
![HP CEO Wants HP To Be As Cool As Apple [New CEO Leo Apotheker Tells BBC That He Wants To Make HP Cool Again - Can The Beige Box PC Manufacturer Do That?]](http://tftscdn4.nexus404.com/Blog/thumbnailimages/alt/HP-CEO-Leo-ApothekerTFTSThumb220153.jpg)
New HP CEO Leo Apotheker (aka – the guy who replaced Mark Hurd) wants HP to be cool. Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he says that he wants to mimic Apple’s “cool”. Apotheker has big goals for the company, and they start with two big product announcements that HP has coming in the next few months.
HP has got one product announcement coming on February 9th that is believed to involve webOS phones and tablets. After that, on March 14th, Apotheker told the BBC that we’ll see the “secret answer” and a “vision of what HP is capable of in the future.”
Apotheker said:
I hope one day people will say “this is as cool as HP”, not “as cool as Apple”.
HP and Apple have similar roots. Both were started in Silicon Valley garages. Both are two of the biggest companies in the world today. With revenues of $114 billion, HP is the #10 biggest company in the world and the biggest technology company. But, Apple has been a Wall Street darling lately and is valued at $317 billion, the second most valuable company in the world – just beyond energy giant ExxonMobil.
But, I think everybody would agree that HP isn’t the company that Hewelett and Packard started and doesn’t have the startup mentality that Apple has. The company thrived on the generic Wintel biege boxes in the 1990′s and some bloggers and insiders consider it a traditioned, slow moving giant, comparable to IBM in the 1980′s.
Apotheker told the BBC that the move to mobile (phones, tablets, otherwise) is the “biggest revolution in the history of IT“. He added that “the bandwidth is there… so many technologies are converging, and HP is the one company that can put it all together. We want to be the leader in this.”
Big words from Apotheker. Sounds like HP has something up their sleeves. WebOS is okay, and I’m sure they’ll make great tablets. But, he’s talking a big game and we’ll be expecting something really groundbreaking – not just webOS tablets here. The clock is ticking, Leo.
(Image Credit: Crenk.com)
Credit: Source.Nokia Just Came Out With Their First WP7 Phones, But The Company Has Already Become The #1 Manufacturer
Apple Threatening to Sue In Icon, Chinese Manufacturer Producing Dolls That Look Like Steve Jobs, Complete With "And One More Thing ..." Backdrop
Now That Skyrim Update 1.4 Is Available, Bethesda Tells PS3 Players What They Need To Do To Ensure Their Game Is Lag-Free
NVIDIA's Top Man Tells Newspaper That We'll See $199 Tegra 3 Tablets Sometime Soon
British TV Network ITV Once Again Threatens Apple Over Rumored Apple HDTV Name, Will Apple Just Call It The Apple TV?
2 Comments / Add Your Response?
Breaking News
The TFTS Team
Apples to oranges!
An evaluation of the company’s size (of which Hp is indeed 10th in the world) does not compare to the valuation of their stock on Wall st. Hp has much more in assets than even Apple, held privately and publicly. Apple also has many assets, more of which are held in stock than Hp. One could say that’s a more risky move, but for Apple, the payout has been enormous.
It must also be said that Hp’s size stems largely (more than 1/3) from its enterprise branch. It’s personal systems group, which handles PC, laptop and now smartphone and tablet sales, pulls in less than 1/4 of the company’s profit. Consider they’ve been the #1 manufacturer (by volume sales) of PCs (laptop and desktop) for years now, and you get an appreciation of the error made in that comparison. Apples to oranges.
What comparison? I was just stating the size of both HP and Apple. That really wasn’t the point of this article.
-Kevin Schram
TFTS Assistant Editor