HP to, like, totally launch PC line for teens
By Ryan Block 
posted May 17th 2008 2:30AM
posted May 17th 2008 2:30AM
Apparently HP's gotten so desperate to connect with the youth market that they've actually hired on a "teen council" to help design a new line of products -- likeliest PCs -- from top to bottom. Will it be another bomb like the hip-e? Guess we'll find out when the line launches this fall.
Exactly.
The key defining traits of teenage consumers are envy, jealousy, and alienation. Good products associate their users with with an existing, desirable group. Unless they drop a 2-million person userbase with this thing, they're doomed. That's the secret to Abercrombie, Mac B, not the music. It's the scandalous catalog, the false exclusivity, and the branding.
May as well just market it to parents, because they're the only ones spending money on this thing.
I thought Alienware already had the market for overpriced computers targeted toward a younger audience. Being in my mid-twenties, maybe I'm too old now to comment on the mindset of teenagers, but hopefully this will fail. Maybe HP/Compaq will quit making shitty computers with proprietary parts and stick to trying to build quality computers and reasonable prices. If it's anything like it was when I was a teenager, the only thing you have to do to market a computer to teenagers (or anyone else for that matter) is decrease the price. BAM! That will increase sells no doubt.
I hope that picture is not what the are planning to launch.
I agree. I would rather get one of the laptops they already have out than that. That looks like a 6-year-old play toy.
Pfft, During my early teenage years I had beige shitbox with the case open like everyone else... well several actually :)
Then I got a Ti-Book, but it was too slow so I traded it for a iMac Desk Lamp, which was too slow so I traded it for a G5...
Btw that thing in the picture is hideous, there's no way I'd have bought that as a teenager, I'd rather have kept my beige PC with half a case!
I agree.
Most tech savvy teens build their own pc's. That's what I did. I'm happy with my white box!
Most teens like Mac's, if they wanted this market, they should have gotten in a long time ago.
Also, cell phones...
Utes?
Well... Let's use all the stereotypical teens and see what features it has, easy?
Jocks: It comes with a football case.
Emos: Switchblade on the keyboard.
Preps: Well... I don't really know wut preps are.
Blondes: The screen is whiteout-proof.
Goths: The screen, when turned off, doubles as a mirror, allowing them to put on eyeliners.
Did I miss any? Please don't flame me.
HAHAHA, that is awesome.
Preps want a computer that is designed by one of their favorite brand names, like Gap, or A&F, or a designer like Gucci or LV.
I'm not a prep or anything, so I wouldn't know.
just give me an ultraportable with some ubuntu or fedora! its not that hard
and although it might be hard with linux to find the right drivers, a touchscreen
even though linux is gaining popularity, kids (people who don't read websites like engadget hourly) won't know wtf linux is unless they see it, give it to a few kids, let them bring it to school, and show it to all of their friends with compiz on, it will blow there minds, and then you tell em its free, and that there are a lot of linux computers that cost 400-500 dollars,
then you are set
if i was given a computer that was made for teens (I'm fourteen) I would be highly dissapointed, my parents know me well enough though, even though they aren't tech friendly, to ever buy me this crap, call me a hypocrite, but i love os x, not because it is easy to use, but i just love the dock, and finder, the only other reason which i havent been able to fill yet was so i could run ubuntu, and vista on it so i could say i have a triple booting mac, but i havent been able to get ahold of vista, and linux screwed up my computer, and i had to wipe both partitions, and reinstall os x
I'm not sure how successful this is going to be, regardless of the designs. Only HP could design the Mini-Note, do a good Apple-grade job of it, make a big deal about how it was going to be a mobile-phone-style aspirational product, then decline to market it and bury it on the Small Business part of their website.
Maybe HP is trying to corner the future retro market. Doomed to failure now, but a hit on Ebay in thirty years.
Personally, I think HP needs to make a more 'OMG like totally hip!" line of PCs. As a teen, some of HP's notebooks are powerful, but not exactly visually appealing. While I like the power behind their 'special edition' notebook, I still feel more drawn to more expensive competitors, such as Alienware or the Dell XPS m1730 (I really like the lighting effects!). I think HP would reach the teen market by designing something for gaming, while maintaining a reasonable price point. The Blackbird is the closest PC HP offers to this, but it's just so expensive....
@mymaclife
Your just mad that I described you precisely.
And I was referring to the store A&F.
Not the company Abercrombie which owns : Hollister,A&F,Abercrombie Kids,Ruehl,and Gilly Hicks.Which appeals to different demographics.
And if some how you were referring to just the store also,the only reason why it "appeals" to all demographics is cause the demographic they are not selling to(everyone else who arent teens or young adults)will think they will be sexier or look younger or etc just by wearing something with a moose on it.
Basically it's kinda like when your 40+ year old mom wears your 12 year old sisters clothes just cause she wants to look"young".
Damned reply system.
well id never touch a hip-e, plus im 12, not even a teen yet and im getting a 2.66ghz imac that would kill that thing, teens need more power in a computer and this will just barely get them through 2 months without something failing because the machine isnt powerful enough
um ok..... 1st thing, teens dont have money, unless you target 17-18 year olds and game developers just dont seem to want to stop raising the fucking bar. to play cod 4 you need at least $800, not including monitor but in a few months some other kikass game comes out that makes your PC seem like shit. thats why consoles are for teens, they don't need to worry about frame rates or any nonsense, the game will always work until a new console is announced.
so if they could some how, by the power of Jesus, make a cheap powerful PC, the would last with any new game for 5 years, then they are going somewhere.
What were they thinking? What is this computer gonna do that other pcs that teens use cant?
lol expect a Hannah Montana edition soon lmao...
Damn i just gave them an idea >=\
none of you retards know anything
if its stylish, has a good feature set, and is marketed corerectly (which wouldnt be hard) it would sell fairly well. (obviously that monstrousity in the pic would fail harder than you losers trying to get chicks.)
Refers you back to the Macbook
Ok, so at 21 I'm no longer a teen. But, from the time I was 12 until recently, I had an IBM PS/1 that I kept replacing parts in and rebuilding. It's still around, and on its second case, 4th mobo, 3rd psu, etc. It's also an old Athlon, time for another rebuild :)
More recently, I bought an HP business desktop. I code; I'm not a gamer, so business machines on sale are the best value per $ for me.
Full disclosure: I wear flannel shirts, split firewood by hand, and code C in emacs. I doubt I represent their target market here.