“HP is focusing on connecting users,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice-president of HP’s personal systems group. “Our mobility business is up 40 per cent year over year, and what’s driving this space is connectivity.”
To its business notebook portfolio, HP is adding five new ultra-light and high-performance mobile solutions.
Included in the lineup is the company’s thinnest and lightest notebook to date, the HP Compaq nc2400 Notebook PC. Priced at $2,599, it’s designed for frequent travellers. The device weighs less than three pounds, is less than one inch thin and offers a 12.1-inch widescreen display.
All the business notebooks are Windows Vista-capable and feature HP Professional Innovations, a suite of hardware features and software solutions that includes technologies such as integrated biometrics and digital accelerometers (a motion detector that protects the hard drive from sudden movements) designed to enhance security, and reliability, and improve ease of use.
Compaq line
In the consumer space, HP has added to its Presario line with the Compaq Presario V3000 series notebook. Buyers have a choice of dual-core technology from Intel or the upcoming AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile processors. Also new is the HP QuickPlay 2.1, which allows users to watch movies, listen to music or browse photos with the touch of a button without booting up the notebook.
“Our strategy hasn’t changed,” said Ted Clark, senior vice-president and general manager of HP’s notebook global business unit.
“Customers have choice in terms of architecture and distribution channel. We have gotten operationally better at managing business through different routes to market and that choice has people coming back to HP.”
Bradley remained vague about the company’s overall channel strategy but said that HP has been up front with its partners about channel optimization.
“We believe it’s important to have an optimized channel strategy to support partners that sell a broad suite of HP products,” said Bradley. He added that HP has been aggressive with partners on creating go-to-market plans, go-to-market funds and incentives to sell beyond desktops and laptops.
“We want them selling storage and printer solutions. As tactical as it is strategic, we believe in an optimized direct/indirect strategy because that’s the way people shop,” Bradley added.
In addition to the notebook announcements, the company has developed mobile networking technologies it claims is designed to create richer environments for mobile content.
For enterprises, the company introduced the new mobile e-mail and mobile management services. Both are designed to enable customers or HP to deploy and manage their global, mobile environment and provide secure enterprise-class management platforms that seamlessly operate over multiple networks and devices.