Is Apotheker's 'coolness' quest what HP needs?
Can Hewlett-Packard--an old school tech company right up there with IBM--score some coolness points to drive its popularity among consumers? New CEO Leo Apotheker thinks it can with WebOS.
When it comes to being a leader in the tech industry, how important is the "coolness" factor? Clearly, the iPhone and the iPad are cool products, therefore making Apple a cool company. Android's coolness factor is also on the rise--scoring a few extra points on the coolness scale for Google, as well.
But can HP--an old school tech company right up there with IBM--score some coolness points to drive its popularity among consumers? New CEO Leo Apotheker is pretty sure it can. And to do so, the company is getting ready to generate some buzz with a news event--a la the Apple news events--next month to unveil the work it's done on WebOS, the mobile operating system it scored with its acquisition of Palm.
In an interview with the BBC, Apotheker--former CEO of the ultra cool SAP--said that the days of making an announcement about an upcoming product and then losing that excitement because the product won't ship until months later are over. He told the BBC:
HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn't have. When HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship. That's a simple management decision, I don't need to re-engineer the tanker [HP] to do that.
Read more of "Is Apotheker's quest for "coolness" the spark that HP needs?" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.