Confusion prompts customers to desert HP
By Stewart Mitchell
Posted on 2 Sep 2011 at 11:03
The ongoing confusion over HP's future plans is causing customers to abandon ship, according to reports.
The company has been sending out mixed messages since its shock announcement to quit the PC business, as well as stop production of its webOS TouchPad tablet.
It makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where they are going
HP's dithering is already causing customers to look elsewhere, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper cited engineering company Fluor, which generally spends $25 million a year on new hardware and software, and was planning to buy high-end design computers and a fleet of tablets from HP. "I've put that all on hold and won't buy from HP,” said Fluor chief information officer Ray Barnard in the report. "It appears that they're lost right now."
And Fluor was not alone, with the WSJ also citing education customers with doubts over spending money with the world's largest PC manufacturer, amid confusion over its plans and abrupt announcements.
"This appears to just come out of the blue without a really good explanation," Frank Cervone, a vice chancellor for information services at Purdue University, told the paper. "It makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where it is going."
"Uncertainty over PC division future and withdrawal of tablets tiped to hit sales"
That would be "strongly tiped", I presume?!
By JohnGray7581 on 2 Sep 2011 
Do HP management have a death wish?
What shambles.
Still, the Touchpad is quite nice. £115 quid for a 32 gig tablet and none of it going to Apple. Result!
By Lacrobat on 2 Sep 2011
A PC manufacturer who doesn't make PC's?
I didn't think their printers were that profitable that they can abandon a presumably lucrative market.
Lots of bong in the HP boardroom maybe?
Even if you were quitting the PC market, you don't announce it! That's really going to help sales and motivate the workers!!
By cheysuli on 2 Sep 2011
£115?
If only the devices were available for public purchase.
Unfortunately very very few devices are. The whole stock was snatched before our eyes by shop staff and are being sold for double the price on e-bay.
The disastrous way the announcements were made and the poorly planned (unplanned) strategy (lack of) is a killer blow.
This has led to real consumers having second thoughts on all HP products, including their still profitable server side. Who'd want to invest in a company which will drop everything at a moments notice? What kind of two bit outfit are HP, really?
By Manuel on 2 Sep 2011
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