Meg Whitman says HP will ultimately have to offer a smartphone

Shawn Knight

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Rumors of an Amazon smartphone and even one from Facebook have been littering tech sites for quite some time but now it appears that another tech giant is focusing their attention on mobile. During an interview on the Fox Business Network, HP CEO Meg Whitman said her company ultimately has to offer a smartphone.

She points out that HP is a computing company and they must take advantage of the smartphone form factor at some point. Whitman said that in many countries, the smartphone is the primary computer as many people don’t own a desktop, tablet or notebook computer.

It’s interesting news for sure as it was just over two years ago when HP purchased smartphone manufacturer Palm for $1.2 billion. The deal was completed in July 2010 but just 13 months later, HP withdrew their interest in mobile and discontinued production of all webOS devices including the infamous HP TouchPad – a product that remained on store shelves for less than 50 days.

Whitman reportedly seems more interested in hardware than software initially, saying they have to “get it right this time.” She didn’t specify what operating system HP would use but if we had to venture a guess, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 – due out next month - is a likely candidate. Google’s Android would be another viable option but considering HP’s close relationship with Microsoft, my money would be on WP 8. No word yet on when HP might be preparing to release a phone.

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Great... thats exactly what us tech guys need. another cheap device that sells millions soley on the purpose that its dirt cheap, but uses all proprietary software and needs to be wiped out of the box only to find that the proprietary software is needed to make anything work right. Working tech support has turned me off of hp so bad I dont think ill ever go back.
 
An also ran company proposing to create another also ran smartphone in a market already saturated with too many variations. Marketing 101: find a need and fill it - - corollary, don't compete in a saturated market.

This is a CEO speaking?
 
Marketing 101: find a need and fill it - - corollary, don't compete in a saturated market.
Thats the kicker is it not? Unless HP can suddenly get innovative to fill the need slot, there is no where for them to go that is not saturated with competition.
 
Given how quick HP was to toss out WebOS, I don't think I'd trust them with anything new. And really, how would hardware from HP differ from so many other companies out their now? Would YOU be excited to get an HP phone?
 
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