HP shocked the technology world this week when it announced that it is considering the spin-off or sale of its personal computer business, and is also dropping its operations for webOS devices – which they acquired just sixteen months ago for $1.2 billion. Instead, the company will be focusing its efforts on more profitable endeavors such as selling enterprise products and services.
HP is and has been for a few years the largest PC maker in the world, so its potential exit from the market certainly is surprising, but it also serves as an indication of how much of a commodity the personal computer has become. No matter what brand you look at the hardware inside modern PCs is nearly the same, and with mainstream systems powerful enough for most users it's getting harder for PC makers to squeeze bigger profits by selling high-end machines.
With that in mind we want to ask you: would it really matter to see HP go when you can get pretty much the same from Dell, Lenovo and others? Will brand be a major factor on your next laptop purchase or will you focus more on bang for the buck and form factor? And going back to tablets and smartphones, what do you think HP should do with webOS?