Hewlett-Packard is making another attempt to “re-enter” into the consumer tablet business. An internal memo, leaked over the internet revealed that the company will have an exclusive mobility unit to handle the sale of consumer tablets. Although the memo was confirmed by an HP employee, the details of the memo still remained confidential. The idea to assign an exclusive unit was initiated by Todd Bradley; Head of the Printing and Personals Systems Group. Apart from handling tablets the division would also look into handling additional segments and categories, through which the company can offer better support to its customers. The unit will be headed by Alberto Torres, who left Nokia for HP. The new unit is ramping up pretty quickly as their new head will take up the post on the 3rd of September.
This is a second memo in HP’s new refreshment policy. The first one revealed HP’s plans of reinventing its WebOS unit under a new company called Gram. Despite several efforts to bounce back (the touchpad saga last year), the company was eventually forced to liquidate the unsold stock. As the year ended, these tablets were selling for as low as $99 for the 16 GB model. The success of this re-invention solely depends on how Torres and his team handle many issues.
The company, like many other tablet vendors are pinning their hopes on the Windows 8 OS. The company has planned on releasing a full Intel based Windows 8 powered tablet. However the company hasn’t made plans of releasing a Windows 8 RT tablet cheaper than its Intel counterparts.
The details of the memo were basically aimed at attracting more consumers in new and innovative ways. HP hopes that through this investment i.e. in the new division, the added focus on research and development will not only lead to the growth of new products but also satisfy consumers in more ways than one. The new division is called Mobility GBU (Global Business Unit) and as already mentioned, will be headed by Alberto Torres.
The memo also clarified that the existing Notebook team will remain under James Mouton, who is essentially the head of PC GBU. As the new head of the Mobility GBU, Torres’s first duty would be to motivate and accelerate the implementation of tablet strategy in order to produce tablets for the target consumers. The exact structure and the strategy are expected to be revealed later.
