Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog: HP's Problem? It Ain't the SAP Install...

Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog: HP's Problem? It Ain't the SAP Install... "So we all saw that HP had a bad week. My bet? It's only going to get worse - and it has nothing to do with their SAP implementation.
Personally, all cards on the table, I'm a fan of their CEO - I think she demonstrates courage, is willing to buck conventional wisdom, and has a titanium spine. (Last week's public firings notwithstanding.)
But that said, I think HP faces an enormous challenge. And it's not related to the cancellation of PA-RISC, or weakness in their Itanium transition. Or even Dell's printer onslaught.
To me, HP's problems spawn from the death of... their operating system, HP/UX. Like IBM, they've elected to ask their customers and ISV's to move to Red Hat Linux or Microsoft Windows on x86 systems. And if you're an ISV, how does that differentiate HP? - they're a box vendor. If you're a customer, where does that leave you with your HP/UX investments? Facing untimely change - with a vendor no longer in charge of their OS."

1 comment:

pbokelly said...

Sorry about the busticated link -- it's fixed now. Blogger has been misbehaving a bit lately -- poor performance and occasional mutated links, etc.

Anyway: I agree with your observations.