Is HP getting back into the smartphone game?!
So what happens when you drop a couple of billion dollars on a fledgling smartphone operating system, make a couple of phones and a tablet with it and then fire sale the lot? Well if your name's HP you might realise you made a little mistake!
For HP, a company that specialises in computers, they need to make sure they utilise their brand recognition in other markets. HP's CEO Meg Whitman realises this and today she's said that HP is planning to release a new smartphone as an entry level device in emerging markets. She told Fox Business news that “We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device”. She made sure not to specify when the phone would be available and she made sure she said this one wouldn’t be a rush-job.
“We are working on this. In the end, I would love to be able to provide all the way from the most fabulous workstations … to desktops, to laptops, to our tablets and convertibles, all the way to the smartphone. But we did take a detour into smartphone, and we’ve gotta get it right this time. So my mantra to the team is “better right, than faster than we should be there” so we’re working to make sure that, when we do this, it will be the right thing for HP and we will be successful.
My view is we have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device. There will be countries around the world where people may never own a tablet or a PC or a desktop, they will do everything on a smartphone, we are a computing company we have to take advantage of that form-factor” Meg Whitman, CEO, HP
The main conundrum here is what OS the phone will run; will the company make the most of their Open WebOS platform, that they've been busy open-sourcing, or will the fall back on Microsoft and run Windows Phone? On a personal level I hope it's the former!
In other news:
- Wii U up for preorder in the UK from Amazon. It'll set you back £249 at Amazon for the Basic model, which houses 8GB of storage, and £299 for the Premium model, which increases that to 32GB and throws in few little sweeteners too! Head over to Amazon to guarantee yours!
- And Yes the Wii U will be getting Black Ops 2!!!
- Apple will ship you a Lightning adaptor with your new iPhone 5 purchase and if the rumours are to be believed then you'll also get the ability to be a USB host with the new port!
- While we're on the subject of the iPhone 5, if you haven't pre-ordered already then you won't be getting your delivery for at least another 2 weeks. In fact the initial batch sold out within an hour, sorry guys, this is the case worldwide by the way!
