back to article HP PCs 'n' printers boss steps down, replaced by Aussie

HP has snatched the reins of its bogged-down global PC and printer biz from exec Todd Bradley, just a year after stitching the units together, as it struggles to compete in the mobile slablet world. Confirmation came from HP HQ this afternoon that Bradley is being put out to pasture installed as exec veep for Strategy Growth …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Been recomending HP for years...

    I've sold 100's of HP Business Desktop machines, they've been OK value, and high quality. I think they are now worse value, but still OK quality. We've got many machines that have been in use for 8+ years that do the job needed of them really well. (They sit on a desk running outlook and being a fat client for some database app the users need). I worked on one today, that was totally usable and good for the job it does.

    Recently, I've bought some Fujitsu and Levano machines, for much less money with as good/better specs. The build quality is as good and the support for drivers and the like seems no worse. Main reason I've done this, is because the HP partner program has been pushy and annoying. If it hadn't been I think I'd have stuck with HP much more.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Been recomending HP for years...

      Making a few items of solid hardware don't make up for the billions lost in failed acquisitions, the lost revenues from strategic malaise, or the organisational chaos of endless changes amongst the pointy haired bosses (of which this is another example). At a guess there's a useless HR department trumpeting on about their "leadership" model, and their "talent selection" programme, and they are at the heart of HP's woes, because people are promoted largely on the say so of HR, not because they are any good. Only such random selection can explain HP's near magical ability to take a fantastic brand and technical heritage, and trash it, year, after year, after year.

      And making some decent enterprise kit doesn't help HP that much when the enterprise services and outsourcing business is a mess, delivering appalling service to end users and IT buyers. In the company for whom I work HP's incompetence after taking over the IT department has been escalated to main board level as a key risk to the entire business. (c100,000 employees).

  2. Erik4872
    WTF?

    Damn hype cycle

    I don't understand why people are still assuming tablets will take over all computing activity in the next 4 years. Tablets are great for consuming content - watching video, reading a web page, etc. They're absolute crap for creating content, fiddling with spreadsheets, etc.

    I can see desktop PCs (the big bulky box kind) being less important, but I still can't see notebook PCs with decent keyboards and pointing devices being replaced by tablets anytime soon.

    The big thing I'm worried about is vendors ditching decent PCs. The Lenovos and HPs of the world sell plenty of garbage hardware to Best Buy and the like, but they do make solid business PCs and laptops. You pay for them, but they don't fall apart like the $199 laptop special. And if they do fall apart, the vendor has enough margin to give you replacement parts during the warranty. I hope they can keep margins on -decent- hardware high enough to keep investing in it. The business I'm in is still very PC-centric and will likely continue that way for the near future, and I don't want to lose a source of machines that won't die a day after the 90-day warranty expires. I won't miss the HP Pavillion or the Lenovo IdeaPad, but the HP Elite line and Lenovo Think line need to stay.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Damn hype cycle

      You're right; tablets aren't any good for creating content or doing real business work. Tablets are great for surfing, playing games, watching videos and sending the odd email, which is all many consumers want to do, and they're easier to use than a laptop, so they're proving popular.

      For any 'heavy lifting' or serious business use you need a decent laptop or PC. There remains a huge market for these and the vendors know this. Decent PCs will stay.

    2. Captain DaFt

      Re: Damn hype cycle

      "The Lenovos and HPs of the world sell plenty of garbage hardware to Best Buy and the like"

      And there's a large part of the problem there. Average Joe buys those, Finds that they're crap, and go buys a tablet, and wonders why the desktop/laptop makers are even still in business.

      Now add Win 8 to the mix, and he's even less likely to buy a desktop/laptop since it looks like a tablet when it's running, but doesn't work like he's used to, since he's gotten used to Apple and Android.

  3. eadon2
    Holmes

    PC Market is being suffocated by Windows 8 + MS-signed UEFI

    The lack of exciting hardware progress in PC's is not helping.

    But until the issue of people not wanting Windows 8 is solved, then it's going to be tough going.

    1. eadon2
      Black Helicopters

      Re: PC Market is being suffocated by Windows 8 + MS-signed UEFI

      eadon2 because this is channel register, and it doesn't seem to recognise my eadon account. :(

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: PC Market is being suffocated by Windows 8 + MS-signed UEFI @Eadon

        Did it recognise your Shagbag account?

  4. Jim O'Reilly
    Holmes

    Marathon Man?

    HP must feel like they are in a marathon where the other runners have a 20 mile start!

    Systemically declining unit count, a price war and lousy margins, plus an OS vendor intent on hara-kiri won't make it easy!

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