From the DF Archive: ‘A Simple Explanation for Why HP Abandoned Palm and Is Getting Out of the PC Business’

HP’s problem, in a nut:

  • The traditional PC market is shrinking and Apple takes most of the profit in what’s left of it.
  • The growth is all in smartphones and tablets.
  • HP’s only OS choices for the mobile market are Windows/Windows Phone and Android, which puts HP right back in the same low-end commodity business that it wound up in with the PC market.

The irony is, HP had a solution to this dilemma: Palm and Web OS. I’m not saying it’s a sure-thing that they could have made a success of Web OS if they had stuck with it. But it would be hard for them to be in a worse place than they are now, and they would have been able to control their own destiny.

It’s just sad how far HP has fallen.

★ Tuesday, 15 October 2013