Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) made a splash with the launch of Windows 8 and its new Surface tablet, but the world’s largest PC vendor is dismissive of the Surface’s market potential, and is also dubious of Windows 8 RT, a limited version of Windows for mobile devices that can only run apps from the online app store.
In an interview with CITE World, Todd Bradley, who runs Hewlett-Packard Co.‘s (NYSE: HPQ) personal systems group, made clear he doesn’t see Microsoft’s tablet as a competitive threat to HP’s hardware business.
“I wouldn’t say there’s competition from them. I’d hardly call Surface competition,” said Bradley, noting it has very limited distribution. “It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it. I just don’t think it’s competitive. It’s expensive. Holistically, the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe. If you want to go to any of the 30 Microsoft Stores in the United States to buy one, I think you should probably do that.”
HP will soon have its own entry in the tablet arena with the ElitePad 900, an enterprise-focused tablet designed for business customers expected to launch in January. It will run the full version of Windows 8 as opposed to Windows RT, so users will be able to run their business programs on the tablet. Bradley added he’s not a fan of Windows RT, and he doesn’t expect HP to launch a consumer tablet in the near future.
“We’ll be doing something next year, you won’t see a consumer tablet from HP before Christmas. Whether we go into tablets … we’ll be judicious about how we deploy against application availability in the enterprise, consumerization, and price points,” said Bradley.
Here’s a few other comments from Bradley from the interview.
On businesses upgrading from Windows XP: “XP to something. We’re not going to be dictatorial to enterprises as to what they should adopt. We’re going to provide the service, software, and hardware to make it adoptable.”
On the alleged death of the PC: “You guys have been writing about how the PC has been dead for 20 years.”
On competition from Lenovo: “They’re buying share. It was pretty well documented this week. The competitive landscape is just as you said, hyper-competitive.”
Click below to read the full interview. Source | CITE World