HP To Start Selling Its iPod 313
Dozix007 writes "Uberhacker.Com is reporting that HP said Friday it will start selling its version of the iPod in September. HP's white iPod will be sold in a 20-gigabyte and 40-gigabyte version for $299 and $399 respectively. Apple's prices are the same. It is essentially a clone of the current design, with no real modification."
If it works..... (Score:4, Insightful)
if two businessmen come with the same idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Why couldn't they have chosen a lower price?
Why didn't they go with the HP blue (Score:5, Insightful)
What's the point? (Score:0, Insightful)
Completely offtopic, but why.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Please, explain... (Score:1, Insightful)
URL (Score:3, Insightful)
In case you're wondering why... (Score:4, Insightful)
Before, HP didn't have anything like the iPos. Now it can flesh out its home electronics lineup a little bit. You know, sell it in a package with its own computers and tailor the advertising so people don't get too confused about mixing Apple hardware with PC hardware.
They did the same sort of rebranding with CD burners, if I recall correctly.
Re:If it works..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Invent? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If it works..... (Score:5, Insightful)
What do you mean by "it"? HP's decision to stop all innovation and try to become a follower in everything they do by just cloning and reselling the products of others?
This aproach may work for the cheap taiwanese knock-offs companies we're all familiar with, but I'd expect better from HP.
These guys once had everything - the best CPUs (Alpha, PA RISC), and now they're an intel-clone-box-reseller. Solid operating systems (HPUX, VMS), and now they're just a microsoft reseller. The best search engine (DEC, now HP) could have been google.
Seems their strategy now it to let everyone else do all the innovation, and just become a follower and hope to make money reselling other's designs (such as attempting to resell Linux and use SCO FUD to become the prefered vendor).
HP... why don't you try hiring back some of those guys you fired and making some of your own advances again.
Re:Please, explain... (Score:5, Insightful)
because believe it or not not everybody has heard of the iPod
This will open the iPod to new markets
has anyone thought... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:This could be good. (Score:1, Insightful)
Dont beat up on HP..Its good for us.. (Score:5, Insightful)
But think of it, HP will use resellers such as Staples, Officemax, Office Depot and other outlets which gives us a reason to use those 30$ off of 150$ coupons and other 10/20% Off coupons to buy these expensive players. For people who may balk at the 300$ price, cutting it down to 250$ sometimes is all the reason for them to spend the moolah. So repeat after me, its good for the consumers. who gives a flying fuck about whether HP had innovated or not?
Re:Bad bad bad... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Confusing to the End User (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't see the point? Then let me show you...
HP is the second largest PC supplier in the US. [66.102.11.104]Apple, is not. I can gaurantee you Apple will ship more ipods in the next 6 months with HPs platform to sell from than they have for the last year. HP has a market reach that is far in excess of Apples, and is an entirely different demograph. Apples target market of young fashion nerds with fat wallets already know about or have ipods, but HP can sell ipods to people that wouldn't be normally reading
With this and Microsofts entrance into music sales, it'll be an interesting few months running up to Christmas.
Only compatible with Windows? (Score:2, Insightful)
smart move (Score:3, Insightful)
HP branding makes it a more comfortable purchase, and Apple need not print "Works with Microsoft XP(tm)!" all over their boxes.
"Gee, that HP printer said 'XP Compatible' on the box, and it sorta works, so this should, too!"
What HP just told us... (Score:2, Insightful)
HP just proved it doesn't understand basic branding: OK, so that's a pretty big smackdown to throw at a multi-billion-dollar tech giant. But consider: People buy the iPod because it's cool, it's functional and (stay with me here) because it's an iPod. If you're going to compete, you need to be different/better/unique, you need to have a dramatically lower price point, you need to have a better channel or you need to have God on your side. HP has demonstrated none of these things.
HP just told us it doesn't listen to its customers. I challenge anyone in HP's marketing organization to produce research indicating existing customers would buy an hPod (my name for it -- HP can send me a royalty check) over the existing Apple product based on exact functionality. My guess is the research doesn't exist.
Finally, HP is broadcasting the message that many of their strongest brand attributes are gone. No, I don't expect Joe Consumer to make a statement like that -- but I do expect him/her to pick up on it subtly. HP used to be about great, long-lasting products that led in their categories (printers, anyone?) both in terms of sales and innovation. They still do some innovation, but increasingly HP is trying to be all things to all people, and it's not working out too well. The clearest branding message from the hPod? That HP is a follower, not a leader.
Re:Please, explain... (Score:2, Insightful)
The iPod is cheap enough (for me to buy) robust enough (to put up with my abuse) light enough for me to carry with me all the time.
And to top it all off, the design is absolutely brilliant. I'm not talking about the way it looks...I'm talking about the way it WORKS. I've messed with a bunch of other players, but the iPod is peerless.
How "cool" it is is totally irrelevant to how GOOD it is.
Not Just A Clone.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:if two businessmen come with the same idea (Score:2, Insightful)
I think it may have more to do with the "last-minute checkout suggestive sell factor", a factor which I just coined, so get down with it.
You know how when you're at a grocery store/Wal-mart/etc. they have everything from socks to cokes to everything you came there for in the first place in the checkout line? The idea is to get people away from thinking that HP is a company run solely by people who carry slide rules in their pocket-protected-pockets along with a roll of tape for their thick Apollo-era glasses.
The fact that thick glasses are in if you're emo is another thing entirely. I think they just want to keep the glasses and change the shirt to an overpriced paper-thin Get Up Kids concert purchase. So now the engineers wear thick glasses, carry an iPod, hide vodka under their bed and cry over the the bygone era of riding those giant one-wheeled bicycles to deliver surprise roses to your crush that has never heard of you.
Selling the iPod is HP's "dell guy", and I doubt the iPod, being a non-sentient, inanimate object -- however cute -- can get arrested for possession.
Re:Is this really news? (Score:2, Insightful)
No, it's astroturfing (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What's the point? (Score:4, Insightful)
However, I have trouble thinking people who are going for a 500 dollar computer are going to "throw in" a 300 dollar MP3 player on the side (for whatever reason--financial or otherwise)
Re:What HP just told us... (Score:2, Insightful)
HP will also preinstall Apple's ITunes jukebox software on its consumer PCs and notebook systems. The company will add a desktop icon pointing customers to the ITunes online music store, HP says in a statement released Thursday." [pcworld.com]
This is obviously good for both companies. It makes it much easier for Joe Consumer to access the iTMS when he buys a PC bundled with an iPod. He's not familiar with Apple so he didn't even consider an iMac or a G5, but he HAS heard of the iPod and sees he can get a system "configured" for iPod use from HP. This is good for HP and helps define them as the home entertainment pc solution.
Besides the obvious, this is good for Apple because after Joe Consumer becomes familiar enough with the Apple brand, he may consider Apple when it is time to purchase his next computer.
As for HP's marketing tactics, it has become clear that they care more about the home entertainment market than they do about being innovators and I don't this particular move is the first sign of that. This will benefit both Apple and HP, however, it seems likely that Apple will be the real winner in the end.
HP worse than you think on this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Compaq _invented_ the hard drive MP3 player. They had their first prototypes in 1997-8, I think. Their marketing folks decided that no one would want one, and they licensed the design off to a Korean company in 1999. You can read about it here [compaq.com] and here [pjbox.com].
I got mine in early 1999, unit #4. It still does things that the iPod doesn't do, like gapless MP3 playback. It has a superior interface, battery life and sound quality. A shrunken version with an attractive design would have kicked ass.
At any rate, HP bought Compaq, which means that they actually own patents covering almost every aspect of the iPod.
So what does the New HP do? They license the iPod from Apple. Yup, pay Apple for the IP that they own. I'm guessing that the clever MBAs running the company never decided to do a simple patent search.
Thus, HP wins the Dumbest Big Company Ever award. HP's stupidity regarding this matter has been confirmed to me by former employees who will remain nameless.
Jonathan
Re:HP worse than you think on this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Then there's the iTunes Music Store. Could HP duplicate the technology behind that? Sure. Could HP make the same deals that Apple has with record labels? Maybe, maybe not. HP hasn't got Steve Jobs to capture record company execs under a Reality Distortion Field, and HP hasn't got nearly as much credibility as Apple in the music industry, because it isn't HP's computers that are sitting on the desks of most professional musicians. Even if HP could negotiate deals to get as much content as Apple has managed to get under similar licensing terms, it would probably take many months. And a lot of independent labels would probably just ignore them, because, again, they just haven't got Apple's image.
All in all, it's really pretty easy to see why HP would rather resell the iPod (presumably on very favorable terms, in exchange for bundling iTunes) than compete with it. Just think of how many 'iPod killers' have come and gone without putting a dent in the iPod's meteoric rise.
Re:What's the point? (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly, plus, the whole "same price as Apple" can be fudged when the hPod is "bundled" with a computer. HP can take a loss on the computer if they are making highl margins on the hPod and the CONSUMER WINS!
Oh and about your tag line:
Boycott Walmart - Recycle - Vote Bush out of office in 04
Three checks for me!
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
These are the people HP is hoping will buy *their* iPod.
Re:Please, explain... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:If it works..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bundling possibilities? (Score:2, Insightful)
And so they can make an unrealistic commercial in the "I have an American Dream(tm) and you don't" series featuring a Suburban Dad in the traditional Suburban Dad Uniform of a mangy t-shirt, shorts with a lot of pockets (for all that disposaspendable cash and all those glittery credit cards named after various precious metals) and sandals and the traditional Suburban future University Perfect Homecoming Princess browsing the overpriced aisle for a "welcome to your new corporately-sponsored entertainment experience" which can be loaded into the back of the $85,000 SUV, driven back to the five-bedroom, 1/2 acre earthy-toned cement, glass, wood, grass and paving stone surrounded Suburban Castle nestled in the cul-de-sac, then assembled in the warm glow of the plasma television and the sound of Suburban Mom calling the Suburban Family to the Suburban Dinner in the new $175,000 dining room purchased on credit last week at the big-box retail center.
That about cover it? Thanks. Good night and drive safely.
Early Apple computers were as successful as iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
You are mistaken. Early Apple computers were as successful in their day as iPod is today. History has repeated itself so far. Hopefully Apple will now deviate from history and maintain their market lead.
Re:If it works..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Makes it harder for competition to enter the market.
Re:Blow it out your ass, you smug fuck!! (Score:3, Insightful)
I am a Mac user. I recently bought av iRiver. Why not an iPod? Because I weighed them against each other and decided the iRiver was the better choice because of the following.
- The iRiver supports Ogg Vorbis.
- The iRiver has better battery life.
- The iRiver _can_ play directly from the file system.
You're telling me in your post that these are "generally useless" features. To me they are not. That's why I didn't buy an iPod.
"No its not simple, its a god damn pain in the ass to use regular file system transfers."
To you maybe. To me it's the other way around. You're writing like it's fact, when it really is preference.