HP Needs to Hire Palm People

by Brian

HP's PDA division is a mess, and has been for several years. They have too many products, generally poor design and clarity about their direction is nonexistent. The launch of their new hw series of all-in-one Smartphones is a perfect example. Before they even roll out the first model, the hw6515, in the US, they've promised an even better hw6715 in early 2006. Somehow they've duped Cingular into carrying the hw6515 which will be inferior to the hw6715 in almost every way. Hopefully consumers will see past the big brand name and make an informed decision.

HP floated the hw6515 out on their website back in April. At the time, this was exciting because their first Smartphone, the h6315 was a total joke. What consumers should have learned from HP with the h6315 though, they need to remember this time around. When Microsoft released a Windows Mobile upgrade, the h6315 was left out in the cold. And the same thing is happening with the hw6515 this time around. It runs Windows Mobile 2003 and will not be upgraded to WM 5, because according to HP, the job it too complex. From their site:

HP wants to ensure that the functionality and overall customer satisfaction of the iPAQ product line is not compromised. The h6300 and hw6500 product lines are significantly more complex products that function on mobile operator networks. Mobile operator networks require stable product performance in order to maximize quality of service for their end-users. In some cases in order to maximize service performance with the new operating system, hardware changes are required. Hardware modifications to on the h6300 and hw6500 are not planned; therefore HP will not provide MS Windows Mobile 5.0 on the iPAQ h6300 and hw6500 models.

The hw6500 series has actually been out in Europe for some time, if you wanted one in the US you had to import it via grey market. So it was surprising when HP announced the hw6700 series

which offered a ton of upgrades over the 6500, including 802.11g, Windows Mobile 5 and possibly a processor upgrade. Of course, it's hard to move units of the hw6500 when you have something significantly better on the immediate horizon.

What HP decided to do though, was push back the hw6700 to allow time to sell though the inventory of hw6500 units they had. Prices in Europe have fallen significantly and HP has signed a distribution deal with Cingular in the US. But could Cingular be so stupid as to offer a dying product in an increasingly competitive market? Really, an educated consumer would never buy that device, especially when companies like Sprint have the EVDO PPC-6700 already on the market and so many others are on the horizon.

Cingular may not be that dumb after all. They've pulled the promotional site for the hw6500 and have not committed to a release date. Maybe they dug around a bit and realized it would be a disaster to release a six month-old device that's already obsolete. In light of their competitors, with the exception of T-Mobile, offering better and faster products, the decision seems clear. The next few weeks will tell us just how smart Cingular is, because there's surely little demand driving the decision to bring on the hw6500. The only reason to do it would be just because they feel they need a new Smartphone offering, and that's no way to make a business decision.

Let's circle back around to the title of this article. Palm, while not perfect, has done a phenomenal job of getting the Treo family to market. Sure, it took Verizon almost a year to get the Treo 600 and T-Mobile still doesn't have the Treo 650. But we know that Verizon has since changed their ways, being the first to get the surefire hit Treo 700w early next year, and T-Mobile, in the US anyway, is clueless.

Palm has accomplished what few others have. They've managed to customize their Treo for carriers and rolled those units out in a timely manner. Part of HP's problem with the hw6500 is they couldn't get it to market on time, much like Motorola failed with their MPx Smartphone. The issue with both probably comes down to lackluster hardware that was continually stalled and management that didn't understand what they were getting in to.

That's why HP needs to look at the success of the Treo and the 7100 series from RIM and bring in someone from those teams that know how to get a Smartphone to market. HP is a computer and printer company, they're not in the business of mobile phones and they were clearly flummoxed by the job of getting one to market. They need to do several things to re-invigorate their PDA/Smartphone business and the first step is getting a product in a high-demand sector to market, the hw6700. If they don't, we'll just end up talking about the PPC-6700, Motorola Q, Treo 700w and all the other devices that will eat HP's lunch while we wait for rumors out of Europe for the hw6900.