HP is planning to return to the consumer tablet market. The computer maker is setting up a new division, led by Alberto Torres, former head of Nokia's MeeGo platform. You have to play to win, the thinking must go at HP.
HP's mobile foray is already a bit of a never-ending story. It started in 2010 when HP acquired the webOS platform with the takeover of Palm. The following period was less than successful, to say the least. HP first tried to position webOS in the emerging tablet market, only to find itself burned by the complexity of the mobile ecosystems. HP's management then decided to turn webOS into an open-source platform and eventually gave up and tried to sell off the activities.
With no in-house platform, what will be HP's strategy now on the consumer market?
It's very likely HP will extend its strategy for the business market to consumers. In May it announced plans to launch enterprise tablets later this year using Windows 8. The tablets will come with additional cloud services. However, the new Mobility unit is reported be separate from the Windows 8 tablet group.
In a leaked internal memo, Todd Bradley, head of HP's printer and computer division, writes: “Our new Mobility Global Business Unit initially will focus on consumer tablets and will expand to additional segments and categories where we believe we can offer differentiated value to our customers.”
So first HP will target consumers, and then the company will try to sell tablets to other, unspecified segments. HP's last attempt to bring a tablet to the market was the TouchPad. This was another perfect example of how HP is struggling to find an opening in the tablet market: too optimistic, perhaps naive, only to then have to slash prices for the device. Not surprisingly the TouchPads flew off the shelves at a price of USD 99 for the 16GB model. HP certainly lost money on this, but at least it cleaned out the stock.
With this hopeless strategy in mind, HP will tread carefully with its new endeavour. HP already said it will not be introducing tablets running Windows RT, a direct consequence of Microsoft launching its own Surface tablet and the high licensing costs. It's still possible that HP reverses this position later. Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Samsung have said they will use Windows RT.
HP could try another go with webOS, which has been brought under a new company called Gram, over which details are still scarce. But Gram is basically dealing with a patient already clinically dead, and HP has shown little interest in the platform.
Could HP, like other hardware makers looking for a piece of the tablet market, adopt the Android OS and go up against Google, Samsung and Amazon? Given the current market dynamics of iOS vs Android, this would be a logical step. Choosing Android could be the final weak bid by HP, after years of tinkering with webOS, adding its own effort to an already endless offering of Android devices. HP is not (yet) a member of the Open Handset Alliance.
