Whitman proclaims new products will return HP to 'greatness'

With Hewlett-Packard's stock price going south in a hurry, CEO Meg Whitman tried to advance the argument that HP's 'return to greatness' will based on great products.

"In terms of investments, we are very focused on product, product, product," said CEO Meg Whitman in today's earnings conference call, via a transcript provided by Seeking Alpha.

Whitman continued. "Great companies return to greatness on the basis of product."

She went on to cite products like its "Gen8" servers, Moonshot servers, and new lines of PCs, printers, and services.

Both Whitman and chief financial officer Catherine Lesjak repeatedly invoked HP's ElitePad 900 tablet as one of HP's great new products.

"We've begun the largest seed program in the history of the company with the rollout of our new ElitePad 900 tablets to 1,300 customers," Whitman said. And later called it the "first tablet designed for the enterprise."

So, is this an iPad-killer at business? A quick glance at the specs evinces a good but not necessarily great tablet. A 10.1-inch 1,280 x 800 display, 1.8GHz dual-core Intel "Clover Trail' Atom processor, Windows 8 Pro, and a weight of 1.5 pounds.

Other than saying that HP has "an impressive new line of Windows 8 PCs" Whitman neglected to offer more detail about other great products.

No mention of the Envy x2 convertible, an innovative 3-pound tablet-laptop hybrid, or the EliteBook Folio 9470m, one of the few ultrabooks with built-in 4G and a full-fledged custom docking station, or the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart ultrabook, one of the most promising ultrabooks with a touch screen.

And, needless to say, HP is not without its critics. "Meg Whitman has become the Charlie Sheen of Silicon Valley. She thinks she's 'winning,' and has a wealth of excuses as to why her team is tech's answer to the Kansas City Chiefs," said Seeking Alpha in a blistering commentary today.