HP Splitting WebOS Hardware and Software

Derek Kessler, reporting for PreCentral:

We’ve received two memos sent to employees of HP’s webOS Global Business Unit that tell the story of how HP is splitting the former Palm, Inc. into two separate units that will report to separate divisions of HP. The hardware division will stay under the Personal Systems Group and continue to report to Stephen DeWitt. The software side — the side that HP’s still interested in — is to be split off and moved over to HP’s Office of Strategy and Technology, where they’ll report to EVP Shane Robinson.

What strikes me about this are the stupid names of these internal divisions. “Personal Systems Group”, “Office of Strategy and Technology”. What a bunch of crap. Arbitrary bureaucratic internal divisions like this are the antithesis of what I mean when I say that Apple, as an institution, is itself Apple-like. In the way that Apple products aren’t junked-up with extra buttons, logos, stickers, legacy ports, or needless ornamentation, Apple as an organization isn’t saddled with a confusing internal bureaucracy that doesn’t map directly onto the company’s products and services.

★ Tuesday, 6 September 2011