I remember when HP was a big deal. But, today, they seem to be hell-bent on destroying themselves.

The rather public failure of the WebOS is just the tip of the iceberg with HP. They took a nice tablet with a nice OS – honestly, the only tablet OS that had a chance at competing head on with Apple’s iPad – and they destroyed it. In no time flat, they’re holding “fire sales” to get rid of unsold inventory at the bargain-basement price of only $99.

What a way to set the value proposition of HP in a consumer’s mind.

But, it gets better. Reference a piece Monday in the Wall Street Journal which begins with:

Let’s say you were given a year to kill Hewlett-Packard. Here’s how you do it…

The story goes on to detail what has been taking place lately inside of HP. Things like:

• The firing of their CEO, and replacement with a guy who doesn’t even come from the electronics business.
• Fire 4 board members in a public display, creating a very unfriendly environment for the people who have grown HP to be what it was.
• Increase expenses, blow cash reserves, in the middle of an economic slowdown.
• Threaten Microsoft with putting WebOS on desktop PCs instead of Windows. Then flake out. Then sideline WebOS itself, killing Palm in the process.
• Fail in a huge ball of fire when trying to tackle the iPad with a competitor product.

The list goes on. HP has been the #1 PC manufacturer in the world. I’m not sure how much longer that will remain the case.

Now they’re looking to spin off their PC business altogether.

Their stock price has been tanking all year.

My Take

Steve Jobs talked about “the post-PC era”. A lot of people harped on him for that. But, this is what it looks like.

HP has been having a very tough time with their PC business lately, as more and more consumers are lured over to things like the iPad. See, a lot of people out there who buy these PCs don’t really NEED full PCs. They could get along full-time with the iPad just fine. And, as of now, their is NO worthy competitor to the iPad. HP tried, and failed very publicly. And that’s on top of their PC business suffering.

HP is feeling the pain. Will it ultimately disappear? Well, not any time soon, if at all. It’ll adjust.

The PC business is a very low-margin business, and when profit margin is that tiny, it is hard to compete up against something like Apple. The iPad has been hurting PC sales. And Apple knows marketing very well. In contrast, people buy HP computers, not because they like it, but because they’re CHEAP.

With a marketing position like that one, its no surprise they’re struggling.

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