SAN FRANCISCO – At its annual mobility summit here this week, Hewlett Packard introduced more than a dozen products and services the company says make it easy for businesses and consumers to have always-ready mobile computing.
“HP is focusing on connecting users,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice-president of HP’s personal systems group. “Our mobility business is up 40 per cent year over year, and what’s driving this space is connectivity.”
To its business notebook portfolio, HP is adding five new products that span from ultra-light to high-performance mobile solutions.
Included in the lineup is the company’s thinnest and lightest notebook to date, the HP Compaq nc2400 Notebook PC. Priced at CDN$2,599, it’s designed for frequent travelers: The device weighs less than three pounds, is less than one-inch thin and offers a 12.1-inch widescreen display.
All the business notebooks are Windows Vista-capable and feature HP Professional Innovations, a suite of hardware features and software solutions that includes technologies such as integrated biometrics and digital accelerometers designed to enhance security, reliability and improve ease of use.
In the consumer space, HP has added to its Presario line with the Compaq Presario V3000 series notebook. Buyers have a choice of dual-core technology from Intel or the upcoming AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile processors. Also new is the HP QuickPlay 2.1, which allows users to watch movies, listen to music or browse photos with the touch of a button without booting up the notebook.
“Our strategy hasn’t changed,” said Ted Clark, senior vice-president and general manager of HP’s notebook global business unit.
“Customers have choice in terms of architecture and distribution channel. We have gotten operationally better at managing business through different routes to market and that choice has people coming back to HP.”
During a question and answer session, Bradley remained vague about the company’s overall channel strategy but said that HP has been up front with its partners about channel optimization.
“We believe it’s important to have an optimized channel strategy to support partners that sell a broad suite of HP products,” said Bradley.
He added that HP has been aggressive with partners on creating go-to-market plans, go-to-market funds and incentives to sell beyond desktops and laptops.
“We want them selling storage and printer solutions. As tactical as it is strategic, we believe in an optimized direct/indirect strategy because that’s the way people shop,” he said.
In addition to the notebook announcements, HP has developed mobile networking technologies designed to create richer environments for mobile content.
For enterprises, the company introduced the new mobile e-mail and mobile management services. Both are designed to enable customers or HP to deploy and manage their global, mobile environment and provide secure enterprise-class management platforms that seamlessly operate over multiple networks and devices.
Services within the mobile e-mail and messaging services include mobile e-mail client and server software, pre-installation, planning and assessment services, end-user support, version and patch management and integrated service reporting.
Although no hand-held product announcements were made, during a panel discussion Dave Rothschild, vice-president of HP’s hand-held global business unit, said the company will continue to focus on the needs of enterprise.
“HP is one of the few companies that has the global strength to deliver mobile infrastructure,” he said.
HP is also working closely with carriers to deliver wireless broadband services. The company has just signed a marketing initiative with Vodafone that will enable future HP broadband wireless business notebooks to integrate with Vodafone’s global 3G and HSDPA (3G broadband) high-speed service.
Users will be able to have secure wireless access to e-mail, the Internet and critical business data while traveling through major Vodafone markets, including western Europe and the Pacific region.
The first notebook to support built-in 3G is the HP Compaq 6400 Notebook PC series, with prices starting at CDN$2,199.
