Screenshot from HP's "Make it Matter" commercial
HP is looking to get back in the tablet game in a big way. Its Windows 8 tablets, which should be available later this year.
"We will be very focused on the commercial tablet opportunity, which is completely under penetrated. And, we have some unique intellectual property that we're going to apply," HP's SVP of Americas sales for HP's printing and personal systems division, John Solomon told VARS and technology integrator news website CRN.
"We will be very focused on the commercial tablet opportunity, which is completely under penetrated. And, we have some unique intellectual property that we're going to apply," Solomon said in the report.
HP hinted it might come back to do a tablet after last year's WebOS-powered TouchPad was canned mere months after it was released to the market. With Windows 8, Microsoft's new touch-happy desktop and tablet OS coming in October 26, HP has another opportunity to define a place for itself by in the mobile market.
Unlike other Microsoft partners who were dismayed that the Redmond software giant had decided to go into hardware by creating the Microsoft-branded Surface tablet, HP seems to welcome the competition and consumer choice brought about by Microsoft's own entry into the tablet hardware market.
"I believe Microsoft was basically making a leadership statement and showing what's possible in the tablet space," Solomon told CRN. "Our relationship has not changed at all due to Microsoft's announcement. In fact, I applaud it -- I think it's great that they are getting out in front and [showing] what's possible."
HP is likely going to focus on an enterprise and business oriented tablets, ones that wont compete directly with Apple's iPad or the dozens of Android tablets that have since flooded the market. While Windows 8 will be front and centre, the question of whether HP will use any of its WebOS applications or features in the new tablets will remain a mystery until the tablets are launched.
Source: CRN