Fortune.com reports on the 158 new products HP released--all at once. HP is going the path of Apple, trying to integrate various technologies and make them easier to use. As David Kirkpatrick puts it, "HP moving to become the Apple of the PC world."
Read the excerpt before or try out this link .
Some questions I asked. Does this threaten Apple's innovative place in the market? Could HP woo on-the-fence switchers with a similar plan for audiovisual integration and the compatability (albeit problematic) of Windows? It would be much easier to move from a Dell to an HP from a Dell to a Mac, esp. for those who are deeply ingrained with the false rhetoric spewed by PC junkies and salespeople alike. Certainly, HP's offerings are crippled by the x86 processor and that horrid OS, but does it have enough Apple-ness to grab some people that Apple could have? THAT, I think, is the real concern of this article for the mac community.
[QUOTE(FORTUNE.COM) -- It's a comparison HP is happy for consumers to make. With its massive new product rollout, the company is challenging competitors to keep up. In an interview with Fortune.com, HP CEO Carly Fiorina says the company's aim is not the next killer app -- but making tech work better for its customers.
"Is HP the new Apple?" Omar Wasow leaned over and asked me during the company's massive product launch in New York Monday. He is NBC's tech impresario who advises Oprah and directs BlackPlanet.com. I told him I had only minutes before written in my notebook, "HP moving to become the Apple of the PC world."
It's a comparison HP willingly invited as it introduced 158 new products all at once -- from printers to PCs to cameras to inexpensive photo paper. Apple of course has led the way toward a vision of integrated digital consumer devices and software for imaging, music, and video. But HP, said CEO Carly Fiorina onstage, didn't merely want to "think different," in an allusion to Apple's marketing slogan, but to "rethink everything."
That was overstatement, but many of HP's new products really were innovative -- like the PC that had a built-in camera holder. Slip your HP digital camera into it, press one button, and pictures are on your PC. Press another button and they're printed (if your printer is hooked up right). CEO Carly Fiorina bragged onstage that this represented the fulfillment of HP's promise in January 2002 to reduce the steps required for taking and printing digital images from 58 to 3. I'm sure they were generous in their initial count, but regardless, they have made things easier. Another cool technology is what they call "adaptive lighting." It compensates on the camera for underlit or overlit portions of a photo so that the resulting picture is properly exposed throughout. HP also launched a scanner that is basically two pieces of glass surrounded by plastic. Hold it up to anything and it will scan it into your PCalmost like a camera. [/QUOTE]
Read the excerpt before or try out this link .
Some questions I asked. Does this threaten Apple's innovative place in the market? Could HP woo on-the-fence switchers with a similar plan for audiovisual integration and the compatability (albeit problematic) of Windows? It would be much easier to move from a Dell to an HP from a Dell to a Mac, esp. for those who are deeply ingrained with the false rhetoric spewed by PC junkies and salespeople alike. Certainly, HP's offerings are crippled by the x86 processor and that horrid OS, but does it have enough Apple-ness to grab some people that Apple could have? THAT, I think, is the real concern of this article for the mac community.
[QUOTE(FORTUNE.COM) -- It's a comparison HP is happy for consumers to make. With its massive new product rollout, the company is challenging competitors to keep up. In an interview with Fortune.com, HP CEO Carly Fiorina says the company's aim is not the next killer app -- but making tech work better for its customers.
"Is HP the new Apple?" Omar Wasow leaned over and asked me during the company's massive product launch in New York Monday. He is NBC's tech impresario who advises Oprah and directs BlackPlanet.com. I told him I had only minutes before written in my notebook, "HP moving to become the Apple of the PC world."
It's a comparison HP willingly invited as it introduced 158 new products all at once -- from printers to PCs to cameras to inexpensive photo paper. Apple of course has led the way toward a vision of integrated digital consumer devices and software for imaging, music, and video. But HP, said CEO Carly Fiorina onstage, didn't merely want to "think different," in an allusion to Apple's marketing slogan, but to "rethink everything."
That was overstatement, but many of HP's new products really were innovative -- like the PC that had a built-in camera holder. Slip your HP digital camera into it, press one button, and pictures are on your PC. Press another button and they're printed (if your printer is hooked up right). CEO Carly Fiorina bragged onstage that this represented the fulfillment of HP's promise in January 2002 to reduce the steps required for taking and printing digital images from 58 to 3. I'm sure they were generous in their initial count, but regardless, they have made things easier. Another cool technology is what they call "adaptive lighting." It compensates on the camera for underlit or overlit portions of a photo so that the resulting picture is properly exposed throughout. HP also launched a scanner that is basically two pieces of glass surrounded by plastic. Hold it up to anything and it will scan it into your PCalmost like a camera. [/QUOTE]
