It’s no secret that HP has struggled when it comes to mobile devices and tablets. The company’s first modern tablet offering in the TouchPad was less than desirable from the start, and HP just couldn’t sell any. Because of this, the company had a “fire sale” with excess TouchPads and sold them for an amazingly low price, far less than they were worth. This opened the device up to people looking to try a tablet for the first time, which ultimately led to a rather large community of users, many of which unofficially installed Android on the device. What was there not to like about such an affordable Android tablet? Recently, HP has spoken out regarding Android, saying it is something they are intently focused. In an interview, yet another HP employee has come out and said that the company is betting on Android to restore its luck in the mobile space.
While speaking to IT Pro, Todd Bradley, EVP of the printing and personal systems divisions at HP, said that the company sees a huge area for growth.”Our strategy is around products which can consume and create content. The Android ecosystem is clearly strong and gaining momentum. It’s broadly appealing for consumers and the [business] segments,” he said at Discover 2013 in Las Vegas.
So, it sounds like HP will be focused on Android tablets centered around productivity and enterprise customers.
“Tablet growth in Europe is one of the few consumer electronics segments which has grown, so we’re anxious to get at it…You’ll see us with more Android announcements as we go through the year.”
Bradley also mentioned that HP has a multi-OS and multi-architecture system in place, and that Android is a huge part of it.
“Big enterprises are segmenting employee bases the same way retailers and we [manufacturers] do. If you look at any large enterprise there is a group of employees that can clearly be productive with an Android set of products and how to make those acceptable is something that we’re looking at.”
Basically, HP wants to create tablets secure enough that businesses will let employes use in place of other Samsung and Apple tablets. He wouldn’t, however, say HP is not necessarily looking at the BYOD – bring your own device – market, but rather the CYOD – choose your own device.
“I’m not sure that BYOD is a trend as opposed to an event. Our focus is far more on working with enterprises to create what we call CYOD – choose your own device – where you’re helping a large enterprise create a catalogue of products that meet software, applications and most importantly security requirements. A lot of the early BYOD implementations have seen very high service and support costs,” he added, implying that BYOD programs may not be all that successful.
Do you think HP will be able to crack through into the enterprise market? Let us know down in the comments!
Source: IT Pro