HP Drops iPod Reselling

[MacBytes]

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Effective immediately, Hewlett Packard has announced it is stepping away from the deal to sell rebranded Apple iPods.

"I can confirm we have exited the relationship," Hewlett-Packard spokesman Ryan Donovan said. He could not immediately provide further details.

A spokeswoman for Apple told the Wall Street Journal that reselling the iPod no longer fit with HP's current digital media strategy. Having just announced a refresh to the Apple iPod + HP lineup, current stock will be sold until no more is available, and there will be no subsequent orders from HP.

[springdaddy]

Good. I never understood why Apple let HP do this anyways.

[zap2]

hmmm, not sure if this is good or bad becuz apple will need help staying on top( or will they) of the iPod market, but when apple was in trouble with computers and the made the Mac clones, that was bad. Im shocked about thi, but this could mean HP is making there own MP3 player!

[Superdrive]

I doubt HP is making its own MP3 player. That would be a disastrous move. I wonder if this means that the bundling of iTunes (aka the whole deal) is off.

[wnurse]

Originally Posted by Superdrive

I doubt HP is making its own MP3 player. That would be a disastrous move. I wonder if this means that the bundling of iTunes (aka the whole deal) is off.

Curious, how would making their own mp3 player be a disastrous move?

[Freg3000]

I just heard on CNBC that HP cannot make it's own DAP until August '06...so they are dead in the water for a little while.

[Sirus The Virus]

To be perfectly honest I never was too exited about them selling HP branded iPod's anyway. There's something about an iPod that makes it an iPod and one of those things is the Apple logo on the back. There's something weird about the HP logo on the back, and I don't know what it is. But HP does make nice printers.

[Freyqq]

Prob weren't making enough $ off the deal?? IDK not really a big deal anyways.

[Jopling]

They probably stopped selling them because no one wants to buy something with HP branded on it. When I think of HP I think of bubbly, slow and frustrating computers.

[walkingmac]

I agree, I don't know of anyone who actually bought one, I am sure somewhere, some fool (sorry if your one) did, but not as many as HP was hoping I am sure. I understand the concept from HP's perspective, make a few bucks selling the top portable player with their logo on it without putting anything really into it. I don't see the incentive of bundling iTunes with their boxes, other then the fact that it is still on top. Also seeing that they didn't sell many also makes me think they will not develop their own. However with the phrase "HP's current digital media strategy" being used it has to make you wonder. I think it is of little consequence, but a lose of an ally.

[ManchesterTrix]

Originally Posted by walkingmac

I agree, I don't know of anyone who actually bought one, I am sure somewhere, some fool (sorry if your one) did

I honestly don't get this sentiment. Why is buying an HP iPod make someone a fool? There's no difference between the two items, what's it matter which one they bought, it's not like they bought an inferior mp3 player

Originally Posted by Coca-Cola

I am sure hPod owners are feeling the same way. I just hope they didn't end up paying more.

Actually in most cases they paid less, Many places would offer rebates, and price-drops and sales on HP iPods when they'd never be allowed to offer such incentives with Apple iPods.

[tekriter]

Originally Posted by walkingmac

I agree, I don't know of anyone who actually bought one, I am sure somewhere, some fool (sorry if your one) did, but not as many as HP was hoping I am sure.

Wow. Thanks for the insult. Apology not accepted.

Last year at Christmas, it was virtually impossible to find an Apple-branded iPod in St. Louis. Our two Apple stores were constantly running out of the 20 gigs, and most of the Minis. With a 20 gig on my wish list, my wife frantically searched around until hearing a commercial for an American TV store that pointed out that they had the hard-to-find iPods in stock.

So she immediately went to the closest one, and got one of the last 20 gigs they had. It was an HP.

I keep it in an Evo silicone skin, so the logo doesn't show anyway. And as someone else pointed out, it has a longer warranty. (edit: I stand corrected on the warranty - both are 1 year, I've been advised.)

I'll let her know how foolish she was when she gets off the treadmill.

[geerlingguy]

Originally Posted by Jopling

They probably stopped selling them because no one wants to buy something with HP branded on it. When I think of HP I think of bubbly, slow and frustrating computers.

Egg-zactly.

hp = ick!

[SeltsamNaivling]

Originally Posted by Jopling

They probably stopped selling them because no one wants to buy something with HP branded on it. When I think of HP I think of bubbly, slow and frustrating computers.

Agreed. I would actually like to see HP try to make an MP3 player, it would be interesting to see what the "great" minds of HP came up with. eh?

[BenRoethig]

Originally Posted by Jopling

They probably stopped selling them because no one wants to buy something with HP branded on it. When I think of HP I think of bubbly, slow and frustrating computers.

Nobody wants to buy HP except one out of every five computer buyers.

[ryannel2003]

Originally Posted by BenRoethig

Nobody wants to buy HP except one out of every five computer buyers.

When I think HP, I think of my POS laptop that gave me so much heartache I almost cried. When I think HP, I don't think a re-branded Apple iPod. What I do think would probably result in a suspension off these boards.

[SPUY767]

Originally Posted by zap2

hmmm, not sure if this is good or bad becuz apple will need help staying on top( or will they) of the iPod market, but when apple was in trouble with computers and the made the Mac clones, that was bad. Im shocked about thi, but this could mean HP is making there own MP3 player!

Well, given HP's past brilliance in product design, I shouldn't think that this will be a big problem.

[Postal]

It never really made sense for HP to do this. The only way HP could compete with Apple was in terms of price, and doing that in turn was only going to hurt HP's profitability. Besides, getting an HP iPod could actually be seen as a negative, since you'd be stuck with "HP" engraved on the back.

[Brother Michael]

And yet, this doesn't affect me in the least.

[mlrproducts]

As long as my Apple stock doesn't dip, I don't care.

[Freg3000]

I vote negative...people were always going around "not understanding" why HP sold iPods. It simply opened up so many more channels for the iPod to be sold in. It also put iTunes on HP desktops and notebooks...no downloading needed. When this deal was announced in Jan 2004 I saw tons of positives for Apple and virtually no negatives.

The end of this relationship is something I feared would happen, and is bad for Apple in my opinion.

[WCat]

Originally Posted by Freg3000

I vote negative...people were always going around "not understanding" why HP sold iPods.

Yeah, fer sure.

Last Christmas I was standing in a Radio Shack store, and happened to overhear the guy behind the counter trying to sell one to a confused prospect:

[RS]: Here you go! iPods are in short supply, so you're lucky we have this!
[Confused]: What's that??
[RS]: It's an iPod. See? (points to writing on box)
[Confused]: Uh, I thought Apple made iPods. That's not Apple.
[RS]: Sure, it's just the HP version. Same thing! You even get, ah, tatoos...skins...er...
[Confused]: No, I want a TRUE iPod, not some copy...
[RS]: IT'S THE SAME THING, REALLY!
[Confused]: Naw, I'll pass. I've seen some real iPods at Best Buy.
[RS]: Grrrr...!

I asked the guy if this was a common exchange with prospective buyers. Yep, he said. Quite a few were suspicious that they were just getting a knockoff copy of the real thing.

So much for HP branding strategy.

WCat

[daveL]

Originally Posted by Freg3000

I vote negative...people were always going around "not understanding" why HP sold iPods. It simply opened up so many more channels for the iPod to be sold in. It also put iTunes on HP desktops and notebooks...no downloading needed. When this deal was announced in Jan 2004 I saw tons of positives for Apple and virtually no negatives.

The end of this relationship is something I feared would happen, and is bad for Apple in my opinion.

Apple has sooo many distribution channels for iPod, at this point. I can't imagine the loss of HP having any material affect on Apple whatsoever.

[Lanbrown]

Originally Posted by Freg3000

I vote negative...people were always going around "not understanding" why HP sold iPods. It simply opened up so many more channels for the iPod to be sold in. It also put iTunes on HP desktops and notebooks...no downloading needed. When this deal was announced in Jan 2004 I saw tons of positives for Apple and virtually no negatives.

The end of this relationship is something I feared would happen, and is bad for Apple in my opinion.

Last quarter Apple shipped over 6 million iPods. Each quarter HP represented around 5% of the sales. So when you talk about so many more channels, you need to look at the sales they brought in and it wasn't much. Some of those channels that had volume sales would be looking at keeping the iPod around and would look at getting them from Apple. Now that is much better for Apple then the HP deal, as now they have their foot in a door for other products.

HP could also view that Apple will be competing with them much more in the future with their switch to Intel processors.

[SpaceMagic]

Um.. most importantly..

This deal was done under the last ceo of HP.. they got rid of her.. and probably hate all the agreements she made.

So! The new CEO wants to get rid of all her initiatives and make some for himself. Sound familiar?