Double Down on Tablets

If anything is true, it’s that tablets are the most important and fastest-growing product category in the technology space nowadays. The only issue is that HP has all but extricated itself from the tablet market. And while that might have been a good idea with the TouchPad, over the long term, it might not have been. It’s time for HP to re-enter the tablet market.

HP’s webOS platform was on its deathbed for a while, only to be saved by the company saying that it would open it up to the developer community. Why should HP do this? webOS is dead in the water, and it’s time HP acknowledges that and moves on.

If there’s anything HP can learn from its success over the years, it’s that the enterprise has been central to that success. HP is still an enterprise favorite, thanks to its computers and other solutions. So, it should build on that and try to make it abundantly clear to all corporate users that it’s there to satisfy their needs.

Ultrabooks have yet to fully take hold in the computing market, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t. Now is the time for HP to get serious about the ultra-thin design and take the fight to Apple’s MacBook Air. To ignore Ultrabooks would mean a costly error in the PC space.

 Microsoft’s Windows 8 is scheduled to launch in October, according to the latest reports, and so far, both Dell and Lenovo have made it known that they plan to be first to the market with products running the software. HP must do the same. The last thing it needs is to be left behind in the Windows 8 space.

Remember the HP Pre or the Palm Pixi? No? Neither do the vast majority of today’s smartphone shoppers. Like it or not, HP’s Palm acquisition was a mistake. The smart move now would be to ditch all memory of Palm and forget about smartphones for good. Apple has that market controlled, and it won’t give it up.

Since PCs are still very important to HP, the company should at least consider acquiring other firms in the space. Dell and Lenovo might cost too much, but why not take over a company like Acer, which has a strong presence in parts of Asia? Market share is everything in the PC space. And HP can’t forget that.

HP’s decision to combine its PC and printer divisions was actually a good move. By combining the divisions, HP is clearly saying to shareholders and other stakeholders that it realizes the importance of printers (to enterprise users, especially), and it won’t turn its back on them.

In the past, HP has ventured into too many consumer-focused territories with the apparent goal of being another Apple. That’s a mistake. HP is an enterprise-focused firm first and a company that caters to consumers second. To try out a television or other consumer-focused products would be a mistake at this point.

Although Microsoft is under fire from Google and Apple, the company is still the most important firm in the software world. What’s more, it continues to set the pace in enterprise software. The closer HP cozies up to Microsoft, the further it distances its competitors across the computing and server spaces. HP must not forget that.