To All: Lew Platt's capitualation:
Lew (I think that's how he spells it!) Platt has been quoted on two different occasions saying that it is no longer the announced goal of Hewlett-Packard to be #1 in PC market share by 2001 (his previously stated goal). He recently stated that he would be satisfied be in the top 3.....Given this, and the clear turn in HP's 2nd quarter towards trying to make money selling PC's vs. grabbing market share at any cost..........I only have one question:
Patterson, would you please strike HP off your list of Dell's rivals (CPQ, IBM, HP) who are going to pursue a "lost leader" strategy with their PC division?....AS IF!
While I'm on the subject of HP, on the way home from the shareholders meeting I read an article in Fortune (if it wasn't Fortune, it was Newsweek, but I believe Fortune) which pretty thoroughly ran through the problems at HP. The final paragraph of the article stated that some board members are starting to question whether HP should even sell PC's, and the CFO gives a pretty lame response as well.......Apparently Lew is the big crusader for PC's here, but given what I've posted above, he doesn't seem to be on any mission at all here (going for 3rd)....I believe it was dated July 17.
Having said all of this, one must respect HP for their previous (to 1996) success, and their strong brand...However, with each succeeding quarter, they keeping losing their way, and, unfortunately for HP, business is like baseball, it really doesn't matter much what happened in the past (unless it intimidates your competition). Dell doesn't look real intimidated, does it? HP will come back, though....but not very strong, I predict.... |
