Quote:
Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
That said, I was extremely disappointed with this interview; if anything, it reinforces my negative perception of HP. They refuse to go into detail about how they will differentiate themselves from the rest of the industry ("investing a lot of R&D"? Meaning?) and sidestep many of the issues (the WM6.1 "explanation" was particularly bad, in my opinion, even from a business standpoint).
|
I particularly liked this bit of corporate speak when asked about lower-priced devices. "Portfolio bandwidth including affordable price bands are major influencers in the Smart Mobile Device Market." Who speaks like that? (To be fair, maybe the translator "helped" there.) Is that the same as saying "Having affordable devices is important," or does it mean something else?
However, I think your comment about R&D spending was off-base. Here's the full quotation:
Quote:
|
Nevertheless for larger screens the future is highres, touchscreen and improved UI. HP is investing a lot in R&D for those areas to develop products, which are time to market in terms of latest technology, securing a superior user experience.
|
I think it's clear what "investing a lot in R&D" means there -- HP is researching (and maybe developing) devices with larger high-res touch screens and improved user interfaces. I wouldn't expect anything more detailed than that.
I also didn't think the WM 6.1 explanation was
that bad. Remember that the question was asked specifically about the HP 210/211.
Quote:
Taking Windows Mobile 6.1, the key improvements were rather relevant for the Smartphones (eg. UI, OTA device management), which are not of big value for pen/based PDAs. On top of that the 21x platform is mainly selling into Enterprise and MidMarket, where long life cycles and ROM stability are key influencers.
A big part of HPs enterprise customers are running their own applications on our pen/based products. Thats the reason why their are expecting platform stability for at least 2yrs.
|
We're obviously not happy with it, but for enterprise customers deploying mission-critical applications, I can understand why they'd want ROM stability.
Of course, that doesn't mean that HP couldn't develop a WM 6.1 upgrade for those customers that wanted it; nobody would be forced to use it. However, having to support two OS releases would increase HP's support burden (they couldn't say "We're only supporting WM 6.1" to customers that kept WM 6.0 for stability).
Basically, we're not the target market for the 210/211. It's called an "Enterprise Handheld", even.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
To be brutally honest, I think HP deserves its increasingly marginal role; it could have owned the entire handheld world a few years ago, but tossed it out the window, and still doesn't have a clue, despite making a few attractive devices. Is there anyone in our readership that plans to invest in HP mobile devices in the near future?
|
I agree that HP could have done a lot better. They used to provide OS upgrades for most of their devices, and now provide almost none. They do seem to provide bug fixes, though.
As for buying an HP device, I'm considering the 210/211. I can get one for under $300, but the announced lack of a WM 6.1 upgrade worries me. Will they provide an upgrade to WM 6.5 or WM 7? Based on their history lately, I'm guessing they won't.
Steve