To use a sporting metaphor, PC maker HP is ‘trash-talking’ about its chances to beat Apple’s iPad. Viewed in light of declining PC sales, HP is also whistling past the graveyard.
“In the tablet world we’re going to become better than number one. We call it number one plus,” crowed HP Europe chief Eric Cantor. His handicapping of the Touchpad against Apple’s top-selling iPad was made in swanky Cannes. Maybe Cantor knows something we don’t. The PC maker is expected to sell just 2 million tablets this year, compared to 45 million iPads.
Analysts give PC makers little chance against the iPad, a Deutsche Bank expert predicting non-Apple entries face underwhelming sales. Despite such bleak projections, HP continues hawking its WebOS-based tablet. What? Haven’t heard of WebOS? That’s likely because Apple and Android are expected to dominate tablets.
When we start hearing such corporate puffery it usually one thing: the product hasn’t a chance. Consumers and companies vote with their wallet. So far, the election for best tablet is overwhelmingly in Apple’s favor. While such trash talking makes for great quotes, it will do nothing to change the market. Do you think HP stands a chance of becoming the top tablet?
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
