Posted on 08/12/2012 1:55:01 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Hewlett-Packard Co. appears to be at a point of no return. Either Meg Whitman fixes everything wrong with the company or we may see the end of H-P.
Thus we are about to witness the greatest comeback in history, which will set Whitman up as one of the greatest chief executives ever, or well witness the incomprehensible.
The incomprehensible is the end of the progenitor of the entire Silicon Valley mythos. This is THE company that began in a garage and allowed other companies to begin in a garage, all in the Palo Alto- Menlo Park area.
Yes, like a monument to abject failure, Solyndra stands out on the road. All part of a dead love affair with all things green.
This is what happened to suck the energy out of Silicon Valley. Elsewhere most of the worlds lesser venture capitalists were throwing their funds into MEMs (micro-electrical-mechanical systems). The Silicon Valley boys were going after trendy green inventions.
Billions of dollars that could have been used to create the next generation of integrated circuits or a unique new real technology invention instead went into green dead-ends. This includes batteries and battery cars as well as solar with ideas such as Solyndra.
When the Chinese came in with older solar technology that was simply cheaper, none of our new ideas could compete, if they ever could. It was over instantly.
The green thing began with Obama and the emergence of numerous green funds, many looking for government handouts. The ludicrous appearance of Al Gore as a venture capitalist working with Kleiner, Perkins highlights the errors.
After witnessing what has happened in the last few years, especially with H-P, I do not have high hopes.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I had one HP laptop about five years ago with design-based technical problems and a hideous experience with their customer service. I vowed never to get another product from them.
No, it’s Carly who was at HP previously.
Meg actually had a pretty good long-time run building ebay—which made her a billionaire.
I think you’re confusing her with Carly Fiorina.
No, that was Carly Fiorina. Whitman almost killed eBay.
“I had one HP laptop about five years ago with design-based technical problems and a hideous experience with their customer service. I vowed never to get another product from them.”
As did many others, including myself who tells any PC client contemplating a new laptop purchase: “Whatever you do, don’t buy an HP.” So, crapola laptops is one of the many reasons HP is dying. (The earlier post about Carly killing HP is right on, too.)
HP has made some of the worst laptops ever for a big company that supposedly makes quality products. I’ve used a few HP laptops in various contexts, and as a PC technician I’ve seen a multitude of prematurely dead or dying HP laptops come into my shop - a great many more than other brands.
Almost every PC company has an occasional lemon, but with HP, it’s an occasional laptop model that lasts longer than three years without going kaput.
I wish more Americans understood that.
You know what gets me, it’s when I have a great experience with anything, a computer, a restaurant, a baby sitter... you get the picture, I recommend them and the person I recommend them to has a terrible experience.
I’ve done this with my folks, friends, business associates...
It’s a real pain.
Sorry you had a bad experience too.
I know I’ve had outrageous bad service at some businesses, and everyone else I know has a great experience with them.
Strange...
Indeed Noumenon! "My dinner with IBM" was a prescient Dvorak column in the early 90's.
I was always more of a Robert X. Cringely fan.
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Back in the 1990’s, I was wanting to get on with HP in Ft. Collins when I was still living in Indiana but never got in. I lay a lot of blame on Carly Fiorina and also Mark Hurd. IMHO, how long before Mark Hurd destroys Oracle and also bought out Sun Microsystems.
I have a friend working for EDS in California and Mark Hurd did a number on them when they were bought out like pay cuts but they sure didn’t relax the rules like dress codes and inflexible hours.
I had a different friend work for HP during the Carly debacle and the atmosphere was so bad that you had to be careful what you said or you were called to task for daring to criticize or question the executive “leadership”.
But ... but ... this little confection is CEO of Yahoo!
You are perhaps thinking of Carly Fiorina who almost destroyed HP after almost destroying Lucent.
HP's Carly Fiorina era is finally over...good riddance (from Aug, 2011)
I had five (5) HP products within arm’s reach on my desk. Then, I got the middle finger from HP’s customer service rep. Never again will the HP logo sit on my desk.
They should have kept the awesome TouchPad tablet, released the 7” version they already had, and promoted WebOS to the 4 million devices they fire-sale sold last year.
Indeed Noumenon! “My dinner with IBM” was a prescient Dvorak column in the early 90’s.
I was always more of a Robert X. Cringely fan.
________________
Name from the past...God, is Cringely still alive?
I had five (5) HP products within arm’s reach on my desk. Then, I got the middle finger from HP’s customer service rep. Never again will the HP logo sit on my desk.
I will NEVER buy another HP product. All the HP laptops I owned ran super hot and had loads of problems and then they blamed Microsoft and Microsoft blamed them when the updates and the HP audio couldn’t work together and no one in the Philippines gave a flying flip and said they could fix it remotely or would immediately refund my money which they couldn’t fix it remotely and they didn’t refund my money immediately. I did get my money just not immediately.
Nope, I need a laptop that will last 10 years, so I researched the issue and chose lenovo
I don’t think Meg was ever at HP before. You’re thinking of Carly Fiorina.
“HPs fix. replace the motherboard with ANOTHER faulty motherboard. Un-frigginbelievable.
They paid out the ass on that one. And they should have.”
*
You know the history, bud. After that, I never had one HP product nor will ever buy one.
My understanding is that the Cringely column in InfoWorld was a composite of the editors.
The book “Accidental Empires” by Cringely is a must read for an accurate view of the valley and Microsoft back in the day.
Now, time for me to boot up my 80286 based PS/2! :-)
Silicon Valley succumbed to the siren of free government money.
But at least we have Facebook.
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