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Do you like surprises? — Parallax Forums

Do you like surprises?

LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
edited 2011-08-19 05:30 in General Discussion
Hewlett-Packard seems to be planning to sell off its PC computer hardware business.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/hp-said-to-be-near-10-billion-autonomy-takeover-spinoff-of-pc-business.html

Maybe 2012 is really the end of the world.

Comments

  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2011-08-18 14:06
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14582489
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2011-08-18 17:38
    Basic desktop PCs are such a marginally profitable business that I'm surprised any company still makes them. People still use them though.

    I guess if you make them cheaply enough (to the point where the average person has to buy a new one every 13 months or so), you can still turn a profit.

    I know of people that went to Wal-Mart and bought a new PC because they had a virus/malware, couldn't get on the internet, and it was cheaper to just buy a new one than to pay someone to fix it.
  • bill190bill190 Posts: 769
    edited 2011-08-18 18:34
    I don't think you will go to a doctor's office and have the receptionist check you in on a handheld device?

    Or go to the grocery store and be checked out on a handheld device?

    I think PC's will be around for awhile. Or at least big screens and big keyboards for businesses.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2011-08-18 18:39
    Screen and keyboard will be around for quite a while.. Big, boxy, repairable PCs are on their way out.

    OBC
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2011-08-18 19:13
    HP buys Compaq, gets out of PC business. Buys Palm, then kills WebOS. With luck they'll buy Oracle next.

    I scored a free laptop because the owner bought a new one because the old one was too slow. It was loaded with malware, so after a RAM upgrade, a disk reformat, and an OS re-install it worked better than when they bought it. While not as fast as a new laptop it's hard to argue with free.
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2011-08-18 19:16
    I'd rather see a public hanging for all the Mal-ware they wrote from their printer side of the company.
    '
    It was their own printers that killed their PC's.
    '
    Allot of computer sales included a free printer. If it was an HP PC you bought, you got a HP printer free.
    '
    Another case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing!
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2011-08-18 20:47
    "I could have been a contender." Time seem to over run us all, that is why the race is won by the swiftest. Taiwan still seems to thing that there is money in computers.
  • rod1963rod1963 Posts: 752
    edited 2011-08-18 21:10
    They should have walked away from the PC market segment before buying that rotting corpse called Compaq. I remember at the time how baffled the pc pundits were at this insane acquisition, as one put it 'a sick company buying another sick company doesn't make for a healthy company'.

    They didn't help things by spinning off their core business - medical and electronic instrumentation to focus on consumer electronics that are notorious for it's low profit margins and cut throat competition. Why a company would focus on low end consumer electronic that have a tiny profit margin and is very cut throat is beyond me.
  • TorTor Posts: 2,010
    edited 2011-08-19 03:31
    My old Compaq laptop is a real workhorse, it's served me greatly and I prefer it for all the newer laptops floating around at $work. :-)

    -Tor
  • HumanoidoHumanoido Posts: 5,770
    edited 2011-08-19 03:41
    Loopy Byteloose wrote: »
    Hewlett-Packard seems to be planning to sell off its PC computer hardware business.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-18/hp-said-to-be-near-10-billion-autonomy-takeover-spinoff-of-pc-business.html
    Maybe 2012 is really the end of the world.

    We are now moving into the next paradigm of technology beyond the computer. For more information, read "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2011-08-19 05:30
    What Ray Kurzweil does not realize is that the singularity has already happened. None of us can function without the internet today and the effects it is having are not clear.

    There is no surprise here. The world is not lusting after PC's any more. They can do most of what they do on phones, tablets etc.
    Clever companies like IBM bailed out of this years ago.

    Anyway, every flat screen tv today is a linux running computer why do we still want PCs?

    Hmm.. How come ther are no Linux hacker communities figuring how to get root on your tv like there is for the Linux based Androd phones and routers and whatever else?
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