The HP EliteBook Folio 9470m

HP unveils a thin and light future

 

by June Yang 

 

Updated 09:38 PM May 14, 2012

 

SHANGHAI - Thin and light was the order of the day at the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Global Influencer Summit 2012, held over two days in Shanghai last week. Many of the highlighted products in the more than hundred shown were sleek, lightweight PCs, including the budget-friendly Sleekbooks and the business-ready ultrabook, EliteBook Folio.

But there was a glaring omission: Tablets.


After the sudden death of the TouchPad last year and the quiet burial of WebOS this year, the future of HP's mobile computing strategy was on the minds of many. It was the first question asked of Mr Todd Bradley, head of HP's newly merged Personal and Printing Systems (PPS) Group, during the Q&A session at the closing ceremony of the event, and repeated no less than three times during the course of the session.

Mr Bradley was quick to emphasise HP's commitment to developing a Windows 8 tablet with its partner Microsoft, with "probably an enterprise and small business focus rather than a consumer focus".

But he also stressed the difference in the way HP looked at tablet products and ultrathin, ultralight PC products. Tablets, he said, are "very much about how people consume data. It's not so much about the creation of data, which is why we have separated them from a launch perspective".

This need for separation was echoed by HP's senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region for the PPS group, Mr Dion Wiesler. For him, it is not just about the size and the weight of the device, but the seriousness of the tasks performed on the device. "If I were writing a note to my parents I might do it on a tablet or a smartphone. But I'm certainly not going to write a memo to the CEO on that kind of device," he explained.

To that end HP has sought to better its ultrabook products by giving them some of the same benefits consumers have come to expect from tablet PCs.

"I think what we've learned about tablet devices are that they benefit from three key things. Always on, always connected, thin and light, long battery life," said Mr Wiesler.

Far from cannibalising each other's market share, however, Mr Wiesler believes that ultrabooks will benefit tablet sales, and vice versa. "I think there is a lot of growth in both technologies, and frankly I think it is going to fuel even more growth."

And HP appears to be fully invested in the future of tablet PCs. Even as he affirmed HP's desire to bring a Windows 8 tablet into the market, Mr Bradley dropped hints that there may be more to its tablet strategy that the world has yet to see.

"That's not to say that (our stated strategy) is forever. I think it's clear that the market's evolved, the market's changed," he said. "I think when we announce the roadmap for tablets you'll see a very compelling solution set that the tablet becomes part of." JUNE YANG

Source:  www.todayonline.com