hewlett-packard

HP ponders cutting 25K jobs -- but it needs more than layoffs

HP is reportedly pondering a big restructuring that may eliminate 25,000 jobs or so, but analysts say that cuts only go so far.

According to Bloomberg, HP is looking to cut 8 percent of its workforce. Business Insider on Wednesday noted that HP's services unit may be a target.

In any case, HP is likely to restructure and cut jobs. Bloomberg noted that HP could either lay off workers or offer early retirement deals.

The problem?

HP's operating profit per employee trails rivals, according to a Morgan Stanley analysis.

For instance, IBM's operating profit per employee … Read more

HP design exec: No, we did not copy Apple

Telling the head of industrial design at a major computer manufacturer that its machine looks a lot like someone else's is bound to elicit a defensive response, and that's exactly what happened with Hewlett-Packard in Shanghai today.

At an HP-led press event about industrial design there, Engadget reports that the company's vice president of industrial design, Stacy Wolff, was asked about similarities between HP's freshly-launched Envy Spectre XT Ultrabook (see CNET's first look here) and Apple's MacBook Air, and whether he was worried about HP getting sued by Apple as a result.

"I … Read more

HP's new laptop lineup: Will it be sexy enough?

Hewlett-Packard has launched a new armada of consumer and business laptops, ultrabooks, and "fauxtrabooks" along with a dose of new printers. The product launches are among the first since HP divided its units into two sides -- enterprise and consumer.

The wildcard for HP's new PCs is whether they have the designs and enough sex appeal to entice workers to tote them to their corporations.

Let's face it: We're entering a bring-your-own-device world. Companies just aren't into PC upgrades. For instance, I have a crappy Lenovo T61 with Windows XP from CBS. The thing … Read more

Apple zooms to No. 17 on Fortune 500 list, tops IBM

Apple's is movin' on up the Fortune 500 list, passing computer heavyweight IBM.

Apple landed at No. 17, up from No. 35, in terms of 2011 revenue, which was a cool $108.2 billion.

To put Apple's meteoric rise into perspective, blue-chip tech stalwart IBM dropped one spot to No. 19, with 2011 revenues of $106.9 billion.

And Hewlett-Packard is also feeling the heat from Apple. Though Apple's Silicon Valley neighbor moved up one spot to No. 10, with revenue of $127.2 billion, HP is not the profit juggernaut that Apple is.

Apple was No.… Read more

HP tops Apple again in PC shipments

Hewlett-Packard is making a quick comeback in the global client PC market share race.

After just one quarter, the Silicon Valley giant has retaken the lead just a few months after it slipped behind Apple at the end of 2011, according to the latest report from analyst house Canalys.

HP's lead in the first quarter of 2012 was a close one, outshipping Apple by roughly only 40,000 units.

Apple skirted past HP in the fourth quarter, mainly thanks to iPad sales. However, if you paid attention to Apple's recent quarterly earnings announcements, you'll remember that iPad … Read more

HP adds Ivy Bridge-based all-in-one PCs

Hewlett-Packard has joined the Ivy Bridge festivities with new quad-core all-in-ones.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company has bulked up its consumer desktop line with three all-in-ones (AIO) powered by Intel's third-generation "Ivy Bridge" quad-core processor. That chip was rolled out on Monday.

Two of the new models, the Omni 220qd and Omni 27qd, are traditional AIOs -- that is, they don't have touch-capable screens. The TouchSmart 520xt comes with a touch screen.

HP also announced tower systems, the Pavilion HPE h8t, Pavilion HPE h8xt, and the Pavilion HPE h9t Phoenix. The latter is the company's … Read more

HP's former CEO Leo Apotheker killed WebOS

It was former Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Opotheker in the library with the candlestick who killed off Palm.

In a recent interview with fellow author Rick Mathieson to promote his new book, Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation, former HP Chief Technology Officer Phil McKinney divulged some interesting tidbits about who was responsible for pulling the plug on Palm's WebOS.

He said that it was Leo Apotheker, HP's then CEO, who made the decision to kill Palm's WebOS mobile operating system. HP had only owned the struggling handset maker for about 16 months before it … Read more

This is Intel's chip aimed at Windows 8 tablets from HP, others

When Intel announced its newest chip for phones it also pre-announced, in part, the chip that will power future Windows 8 tablets from companies like Hewlett-Packard.

This week Intel disclosed details of the Z2580 Atom chip for phones. All in all pretty impressive: it's Intel's first dual-core chip for phones, uses Hyper Threading (which can allow a dual-core chip to act like a quad-core in some cases), runs up to 1.8GHz in burst mode, and, importantly, packs Imagination's speedy PowerVR SGX 544MP2 graphics processing unit.

That phone chip is what Intel calls "Clover Trail L.&… Read more

HP cuts 270 employees from webOS division

Hewlett-Packard cut 270 employees from its troubled webOS division today, a move aimed at cutting costs, but which calls into question the company's recent statements that it is committed to the platform.

According to The Verge, HP slashed the positions because "it no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before."

The company's decision comes not long after it said it would open source the webOS platform and after the recent departure of former WebOS chief Jon Rubinstein.

The Verge published a statement from HP about the layoffs this afternoon … Read more