The big WebOS event that Hewlett-Packard has planned for
Feb. 9 is expected to include the introduction of its long-awaited WebOS-based
answers to the Apple iPad. However, beyond
introducing a few devices, the event reportedly will
represent the unveiling of a new HP, and one that Leo Apotheker
— now four months into his role as CEO of HP — hopes consumers will
embrace as cooler and hipper than the enterprise-focused PC giant of
yesteryear.
Speaking with the BBC in
an exclusive interview during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Apotheker shed
a little light on his thoughts about the company, and what he’d like to help it
achieve.
"What's happening is probably the biggest revolution in
the history of IT," Apotheker told the BBC of the current tech market.
“The Internet is going totally mobile, 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.”
A sprawling company, with interests in a variety of
enterprise IT solutions, such as servers, cloud computing, IT services and
professional and consumer desktops and laptops, HP — following its July
2010 purchase of Palm — is now also competing in the finicky but lucrative
consumer mobile device space. The very enormity of the company, Apotheker told
the BBC, can actually be its “basis of strength.”
Only HP, he added, can "get the speed of innovation,
the ease of use, the accessibility, the wow factor from the consumer side"
and "harden it for the enterprise.”
As for that “wow factor” — a necessity in the consumer
device market, where Apple’s iPhone and iPad have set the bar sky high
— Apotheker hinted at a few changes in the works at HP. The first will be
the end of the Palm brand, with the planned Feb. 9 devices likely to launch
under the HP umbrella instead.
Also, HP wants to make
better use of the momentum behind events such as the one it has planned by
launching its products within weeks of their introduction, before the built-up
buzz quiets down.
And lastly, HP is shooting for a major cool factor.
“I hope one day people will say 'this is as cool as HP,' not
'as cool as Apple,'" Apotheker told the BBC.
In addition to the introduction of products that can
undisputedly compete at the high-end of the market — as HP Executive Vice President Todd Bradley has said that WebOS, with
its “true multitasking” capabilities, can
— winning over consumer heart-share, along with market share, will require
some smart marketing by HP.
The company, said Apotheker, has been
"undervalued." While HP leads the global PC market, during the fourth
quarter of 2010 it saw its market share dip, as sales of mini notebook PCs in
the United States slowed, in part challenged
by growing consumer interest in tablets such as the Apple iPad and Samsung
Galaxy Tab — two devices that HP will look to counter with its for-now-still-veiled
WebOS tablets.
“Shame on us, though,” Apotheker added. “ I don’t think HP
has been telling its story as well as it could over the past few years.”
On Feb. 9, HP will have the chance to crack the spine on a
new book. Whether the consumer marketplace will find it as compelling as
Apple’s story, or slick, Android-running devices from Samsung, HTC and others,
only time will tell.
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