webOS chief Stephen DeWitt in a phone interview with Ina Fried:
At the end of the day, webOs is going to be a popular platform on a variety of connected devices.
And which day would that be? Apotheker was clear that webOS hardware by HP would be shutdown. Yet:
Pre3 is being launched in very selective areas. We’re not broadly launching Pre3.
Why is the Pre3 being launched at all? Is it perfect? US$99 unlocked?
Lenovo CEO Yuanquing Yang, via AllThingsD:
We will be one of the strongest of the players in this area.
Yang is referring to the tablet area.
Apple only covers the top tier. With a $500 price you cannot go to the small cities, townships, low salary class, low income class. … Apple is very strong, but when IBM created the PC market there was just IBM; if you look at the PC industry now it is very diversified. I believe that will happen in tablets as well.
So Lenovo will build really affordable tablets, way cheaper than US$500, and target low-income folks, who really need and want tablets. And by strongest, I’m guessing Yang intends to win with the largest market share based on unit shipments. That reminds of HP and Dell: both companies think unit market share is the most important performance metric. It certainly is important, but sustainable businesses are built on profit.
LG: The 9.8-mm thin LG-E730 or Optimus Sol smartphone sports a 3.8-inch Ultra AMOLED display. The Ultra AMOLED integrates the touch panel into the display enhancing visibility by reducing reflections and refractions. LG’s Optimus UI 2.0 feature black menu backgrounds reducing OLED power consumption by 20-30%. The Optimus Sol will be available in Europe in mid-September.
Darren Murph, Engadget:
But here’s a genuine question: how many of you actually use your tablet (of any brand) for productivity tasks as much as you thought you would when you lined up around the block to buy it? And after you invest a couple hundred in accessories to make it halfway useful, aren’t you better off (financially and otherwise) with a bona fide laptop? For me, that answer is “yes.”
How many of you actually use your sports car (of any brand) for hauling your family as much as you thought you would when you spent all that money to buy it? And after you invest a couple thousand in accessories to make it halfway useful, aren’t you better off (financially and otherwise) with a bona fide SUV? For me, that answer is “depends”.
It depends on what I’m looking for. If I want a light, nimble, two-seater sports car for the me and the Mrs., I’m not going to bemoan the lack of seating for my entire family. A sports car doesn’t do everything a SUV can. A tablet, and in particular the iPad, doesn’t do everything a full-blown notebook can. Isn’t that obvious?
I suppose Apotheker gave the Palm/WebOS guys a chance, and let them get the TouchPad on the market. But apparently their chance was a one-strike-and-you’re-out opportunity to gain traction in the market immediately. But the TouchPad didn’t get any traction immediately, so, boom, that’s it, Apotheker is done with them. [...]
I get the feeling the Palm/webOS guys wanted more time to fine-tune the TouchPad. But Apotheker, the guy who stated with much bravado that HP wouldn’t release a product that isn’t perfect, pushed it out anyway knowing it wasn’t ready. He wanted webOS to strike out. Which makes sense for an ex-SAP CEO focused on enterprise software and consulting.
Joshua Topolsky tweeted suggesting HP should have priced the TouchPad at US$199. John Gruber responded:
Still, though, even if they’d sold 500,000 of them it might have cost $100 million. That’s a lot of money to spend on a promotion.
Sustainable businesses are built on profit.
True, profits sustain businesses. But in the case of conglomerates like HP where there are many business units, one business unit could be raking in profits while another might not. The money-losing business unit if deemed strategic enough could be sustained with profits from other parts of the company, and for quite some time until self-sustainable.
HP decided smartphones and tablets were not strategically important for the company’s future. If they were, short term losses could have been financed for profits in the long term. The decision to fold was shortsighted: Apple continues to prove enormous profits can be generated by focusing on consumers and not on enterprises.
Update: But here’s the interesting thing. Richard Kerris, VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at HP not too long ago shared this:
We think there’s a better opportunity for us to go after the enterprise space and those consumers that use PCs. This market is in it’s infancy and there is plenty of room for both of us to grow.
So why drop the TouchPad when HP is now focusing on the enterprise?
Pamela Jones on Google’s reexamination requests regarding two Lodsys patents:
Most reexamination requests rely on a finding of obviousness, which is a far more subject standard than demonstrating a lack of novelty. A lack of novelty can be established by any one piece of prior art that discloses each of the key elements of claimed invention. In each of these cases Google has identified not one, but five separate pieces of prior art that each alone demonstrates a lack of novelty in the critical Lodsys claims.
From what I can understand if a reexamination is granted, the two patents (#7,222,078 and #7,620,565) Lodsys is using to sue app developers have a good chance of being nullified.
To the rest of you, well, do something different. But, for jeepers sakes, do not keep fooling yourself that there is a tablet business or even much of a consumer PC business you have any chance of making real money in. If HP can’t, if Dell can’t, you are toast there.
To recap:
- Stop trying to make iPads. Make markets.
Brad Chacos, Maximum Tech:
[...] Best Buy’s turning to the age-old “bundling” technique to try and move some inventory. Next week, if you buy certain Samsung-brand 3D TVs, the big box retailer will toss in a Galaxy Tab 10.1, too.
Two things many haven’t shown much interest in buying. Now bundled together. Genius.
Joanna Stern, This is my next…:
The 1280 x 800-resolution, 10.1-inch display may match that of other Honeycomb tablets on paper, but it’s definitely not as bright or crisp as the screens on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the iPad 2. Colors are washed out in comparison and the panel, like much of the chassis, is low quality. To Lenovo’s credit, the viewing angles are fairly wide and sharing the screen with others was no issue. The touchscreen itself is responsive (at least when the software is), as is the optical-based power button that lives on the right bezel (when held horizontally). [...]
A low-quality not-so-bright LCD with washed-out colors. At least the viewing angles and touch responsiveness are decent.
What makes the iPad so good? A great display and a great multitouch experience. To get that though requires crafting an exquisite chemistry between hardware and software.
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