AN IN DEPTH ANALYSIS:HEWLETT-PACKARD

Business cup challenge: Team Lower 6

•Hewlett-Packard has a reputation as being one of the worlds top tech companies as well as one of the founders of the infamous Silicon valley. From PCs to printers to scanners and tablets HP has produced it all reaching a consumer base in all corners of the world. But sadly the tech curse of being shot down the tech king pedestal has caught up with them with their stocks fluctuating severely since 2001 but make no mistake, HP is still very much alive in the pc market.

All pictures from hp.com

Is apple really the worlds largest handheld computer maker?

• Tough question. To holistically answer this question we must ask ourselves;•What exactly is a handheld computer?• Again, another very controversial topic.

Webopaedia.com says;A portable computer that is small enough to be held in one's hand. Although extremely convenient to carry, handheld computers have not replaced notebook computers because of their small keyboards and screens. The most popular hand-held computers are those that are specifically designed to provide PIM (personal information manager) functions, such as a calendar and address book. Some manufacturers are trying to solve the small keyboard problem by replacing the keyboard with an electronic pen. However, these pen-based devices rely on handwriting recognition technologies, which are still in their infancy.

Depending on your definition, handheld computers could include tablets, smartphones, iPads and even iPods . But make no mistake handheld computers are NOT to be mistaken for PCs , they come next to nowhere when compared to the processing power and storage capacity of most modern pcs and can never be fully juxtaposed with them unless they acquire that same status.

So I repeat: Is apple really the worlds largest handheld computer maker?• Now that we have established what handheld computers are ; YES• Apple is the worlds largest handheld computer maker which includes ipods,

smartphones, tablets and pcs. This status is because apple congregates all its devices under one name with no other company having any IOS manufacturing rights

But if we were to subtract the more controversial devices and leave the PCs standing, HP is definitely no 1 in pc sales followed by Dell and Lenovo, Apple does not come close.

Tech.fortune.cnn.com

Picture from Macobserver.com

Why is Apple no 1?• Presently the main reason apple is number1 when compared to other manufacturers is

the integration with iPads and iPods. Apples security fortification is such that synchronizing any apple product with one that is not is a very difficult and complicated process often resulting in the loss of data and especially music from iTunes unless on e has iTunes on their device ( that itself is not a guarantee). It is a very smart move on the part of apple to make sure their devices work most efficiently under their own counterpart software compelling most people who already own one apple device to continue the apple way making sure sales stay on top.

• Scenario: • you buy an iPad and you want to send songs via Bluetooth from your phone to your new

device, its not possible so you decide to buy an iPhone, • now you're much more comfortable, but then again, every time you connect your

connect your iPhone to your pc, you lose some songs so you decide to get iTunes,• it great for while because you can buy songs straight from the iTunes store but

synchronizing the entire phone with the pc has become a chore so you opt for the new mac book. It looks way cooler than your previous laptop plus ,

• since you’ve got all apple products you might as well buy the ipod to complete the entire ensemble.

Some other reasons consumers gave areThe great customer service at the apple store and the stricter security measures on apple devices.We did find other reasons why apple

consumers would regard it as the best tech provider but most of them were very much biased. Windows and android users would also find various ways to match up apples claims of user friendliness, booting time, storage capacity , quality materials etc. and therefore in order to remain as neutral as possible as well as applicable to all consumers, none of their opinions were expressed in this analysis.

The touch pad and MP3: another horrible mistake

• The Touchpad , another tech failure that entered the tablet market had the same problems as other tablet failures. It lacked 3rd part apps and had a terrible operating system, the WebOS. It had completely misplaced priorites , everyone knows that upon entering the tablet game one needs two basic properties: an attractive OS and truckload of apps.

• HP didn’t put as much time and passion to build up webOS. WebOS had poor Webkit roots (a built-in engine designed for use with browsers). As a result it made the apps on WebOS just too slow to even compete with giants such as Apple iOS and Android.

• Instead of HP building up on WebOS hardware, they spent their time into launching the Veer (smartphone) and the TouchPad, whose predecessors had very poor sales.

• HP relied on other companies to build its processors. As a result it didn’t have much control over widgets. Since the making of the iPad and the iPhone 4, Apple has been designing their own chips.

• The TouchPad was just the iPad’s doppelgänger, which was sold for the same price. With the TouchPad running on WebOS, with fewer and slower apps, and looked like the iPad with the same price, why would consumers consider buying it at all? HP has already discontinued all WebOS devices, as well as dropped the price of the TouchPad, for $399 for 16GB and $499 for 32GB, to $99.99. picture from engadget.com

• How about the MP3? Ask anyone on the street “what do you think of the HP MP3 player?” All you’d get is a blank, cold stare and a shrug. Not only were the MP3 players uncreative and overshadowed by the iPod, they were marketed terribly with close to no advertisements or promotions.

Dwindling Market

• One of the main issues with Hewlett-Packard is its management. Since the initial founders left, HP has failed in finding the right manager for the company. Regardless of who the CEO was, when growth fell under expectations, management immediately pursued a quick and expensive deal, in hopes of gaining market share. However, putting too much faith into deals that "look good" will not replace the benefits of concentrating on research and development and the next generation of products that could boost sales. It is easy to make deals, but very hard to make them work. For instance, the disastrous $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy in 2011 forced them to take an $8.8 billion write-down on the value of company in 2012. Consequently, Hewlett-Packard is now facing shareholder lawsuits since they failed to examine properly Autonomy's finance's before acquiring it.

• Hp also purchased Palm, an American smart phone manufacturer in April 28, 2010 for $1.2B, a business that was once the industry leader, but had no compelling products in the development pipeline.  HP did use Palm to launch a Touchpad tablet, but it was too late and as before explained ,had so few applications that the product was recalled from retailers after only 49 days. Clearly, the start of the trend towards mobile, smart phones and a different client model for computing was one that hp appeared unable to adjust to. The shift of attention from PCs to the touchpad allowed its immediate competitors like Asus, Acer and Lenovo to gain a significant portion of its market share.

And drastic stock value reductions• From thefiscaltimes.com ( why hp is dow jones biggest loser )• “The lack of stability at the board and CEO level, which are related, has

made it very difficult for HP to reach any kind of a steady state, and the strategies that each CEO has brought forward have been dramatically different than their predecessor,” says analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. “Carly Fiorina was heavily focused on consumer, Mark Hurd was heavily focused on cost reduction and corporate, Apotheker, for as little as he lasted, was heavily focused on software, and Meg Whitman right now is heavily focused on trying to fix HP. So the end result is they’ve had a lot of massive changes in terms of leadership and direction.”

• The years of turmoil in 2010 led Joe Nocera of The New York Times to call HP’s “the Most Inept Board in America”

• Since 2001, HP had spent a reported $67 billion on mergers and acquisitions, more than double its current market value of around $28 billion. That market cap isn’t much higher than the value of writedowns, restructuring charges and deal-related expenses HP has taken since 2006.

From this information, it can be inferred that the constant fluctuations and fallacious mergers has led HP’s stock to the gallows and has resulted in its gradual decrease.

Picture from commons.Wikimedia.org

It is unsure whether or not HP can bounce back to its former glory in the market. In fact the present CEO, Meg Whitman who is focused on ‘fixing’ HP has clearly stated that HPs renovation is a multi-year project and that investors and shareholders have to be patient. HP may have lost its market in north America but most investors seem to have forgotten that that is not the only market there is, African a markets are booming and it would be worthwhile to look into that because HP already has a stellar reputation (in fact an HP laptop running the windows 8 software is what was used throughout this analysis.)

Team lower 6• Daisy Sowah• Leiya Salis• Amina Seini• Kofi Opuni-

Frimpong

Special Acknowledgement to David Antwi , a very helpful research partner

Extra Acknowledgement

for the best chemistry teacher

in the world; Mr Noble Nazaar

END OF PRESENTATION

Thank you so much for your time

Daisy Sowah: the powerpoint wizard & researcher for HP’s loss of stock valueLeiya Salis: all about Apple handheld computers researcherAmina Seini: researcher for Asus and AcerKofi Opuni-Frimpong: failure of the HP tablet and MP3 issue researcher