[Gnubug]

Well, after less than a year on the job as HP's top dog Léo Apotheker is out, and former eBay CEO and one time candidate for California governor Meg Whitman is in. The move was hardly unexpected, but it very quickly evolved from quiet mumblings and rumors to full-fledged fact this afternoon. It was initially expected that Whitman would only be stepping in as an interim solution -- just another person passing through the revolving door at the entrance to the CEO's office. She's stepping in at a crucial and somewhat difficult time for the company that has seen its stock price plummet 47 percent, its $1.2 billion mobile OS flounder and is considering spinning off its PC business.

Interesting News, What does that mean to Touchpad and WebOS? Not known at the moment, but it could mean that some wrongs may be righted, or it could mean nothing but changes of the Head of HP.
The fact remains, Léo Apotheker was removed from CEO and HP because his plans to kill the computer and hardware, and basically tossed HP's future into an unknown bowel of mess.

Will the hardware group and the touchpad have a life from now? Will WebOS have a new lease on life? Who knows, but things just got interesting....

 

[situbusitgooddog]

Wow that is great news, heard the rumblings earlier today but had resigned it to wishful thinking. Interesting times ahead I'd wager.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news/dear-new-hp-ceo-bring-the-touchpad-line-back/4615

 

[I Am Marino]

It would be nice to see HP restart work on WebOS, it really isn't a bad system.

 

[EricErK]

It would be nice to see HP restart work on WebOS, it really isn't a bad system.

Nice ui but... umm very flawed

 

[yarly]

Meg Witman isn't any more qualified to be the HP CEO than their previous guy. Her experience is running ebay, not a hardware company. Until the last 3 CEOs (not including her) were all hired internally and were all of engineering backgrounds. Now, I guess they just take what they can get, but typically those without engineering/computer science backgrounds running tech companies do not fair well. This is why Microsoft has floundered since Gates left (Balmer is an MBA). However, there is the obvious exception with Jobs and Apple, since he was also a business guy.

I'd say having an engineer at the helm was google's success though, since their founders both are and so was Eric Schmidt.

 

[twiddler]

I doubt HP will be around much longer nevermind Webos. It also seems that no other company wants to adopt webos either. With big giants like google, apple, and microsoft, there just is no room for anyone else.

 

[kernelhappy]

Engineers believe that if the tech is good, people will buy it.

Business people believe you have to convince people that your product is something they must have.

I think history has shown it's easier to convince people they want a bedazzler than to make electroluminescent clothing.

 

[trapntan]

Engineers believe that if the tech is good, people will buy it.

Business people believe you have to convince people that your product is something they must have.

I think history has shown it's easier to convince people they want a bedazzler than to make electroluminescent clothing.

Nice. Whitman is qualified as long as HP keeps up sales figures...in the end, that is always the CEO's job, not new tech, not fancy hardware....sales. If HP could turn a profit selling calculator watches, they would.

Sent from my Thunderbolt using Tapatalk

 

[yarly]

Obviously satire, but still funny:

HP appointed Meg Whitman as CEO earlier today, in an attempt to save the troubled computer maker. When asked what her first course of action would be, Mrs. Whitman firmly answered "eBay."

"I'm an excellent eBayer, and have been for years. You've never seen a feedback profile with so many A+++++'s before." Mrs. Whitman continued, "HP has warehouses full of inventory, ready to be gobbled up by the highest bidder. On my way in today, I must have passed about a dozen pallets of iPaq 3630's just collecting dust. Those go for a lot of money you know! There's so much stuff just lying around here that can be sold for big big bucks!"

The board of directors was quick to point out Mrs. Whitman's Titanium PowerSeller level status, among her many other credentials. "She accepts all major forms of payment, including PayPal." When asked about their CEO selection process, a board member went on to say "We won an auction for a used paper towel holder from her the other week. She even emailed a tracking number so we could determine the exact date it would be delivered. I must have refreshed UPS.com about a zillion times! Well, when we got it, turns out it was actually new, not used! That level of service amazed us, and we knew right then and there we found our next CEO."

Mrs. Whitman quickly detailed a plan to get the company back on track, including getting their feedback rating back up to 100%. "All these negative feedbacks about this Norton AntiVirus thing have got to go. And paying to upgrade your auction to bold, and including a picture, really does make a difference!" One shareholder noted that "It's executive-level thinking like this which will save this company." Other Shareholders have agreed, and bid the stock up to a yearly-high shortly after the announcement.

"Is Woz's cubicle still around here? I bet there's several Apple I's under his desk that'll go for lots."

When asked about long-term prospects beyond selling all of HP's assets, Mrs. Whitman indicated that they can continue to thrive by adopting IBM's business model of advertising their brand everywhere, without actually selling anything, financing it with Jeopardy-playing machines. "I love that show and watch it every night. Ooo, maybe we can make a Wheel of Fortune machine too! That'll really pump our margins up!"

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3028343

 

[Kayone]

I doubt it will change anything.

 

[piiman]

Nice ui but... umm very flawed

I wouldn't say flawed but immature more like early versions of Android.