HP merging Voodoo with consumer PC unit

Just weeks after "reinventing" Voodoo with the Envy 133 laptop and Omen gaming desktop, it looks like HP's had enough -- it's decided to straight-up merge the specialty PC shop with its core consumer business, and sell its products alongside the Compaq Presario and HP Pavilion lines. Yeah, that'll make Voodoo seem totally hardcore. For it's part, HP says it's always been planning on this kind of merger, and that the move will make Voodoo product easier to buy worldwide and faster to get with no change in service for existing customers, but it's also oddly ambiguous on whether the Voodoo name will live on -- saying only that it's "likely," but that a decision hasn't been reached. All this means that it's even weirder that HP has both the Voodoo and Blackbird gaming lines, of course -- any bets on which one gets axed first?

Read - PC World article
Read - HP CTO Raul Sood's blog entry on the merger

[Shadowise @ Jul 24th 2008 6:50AM]

Hmmm... it will be sad if one of the lines gets the chop, especially now that Vadim has gone into liquidation.

I guess the luxury computer business isn't as easy as slapping together pricey components.

[qazeqaz @ Jul 24th 2008 6:55AM]

i would say voodoo cause the new laptop sucks with video performance :(

[ed. @ Jul 24th 2008 7:18AM]

dude it's an ultraportable. what do you expect? It's one of the thinnest laptops ever made. No way it'll have a 9800m GTXOMGWTFBBQ in it. Even though voodoo is a gaming brand, the envy is NOT a gaming laptop. I expect voodoo's laptops to go down a similar path to the xps laptops. More of a premium lineup rather than plain gaming.

[Maeztro @ Jul 24th 2008 8:33AM]

Can I run that GTXOMGWTFBBQ in SLI?

[216 @ Jul 24th 2008 7:17AM]

Being an HP Fan myself, what they'll probably do is get rid of their HP m9000 series or the m8000 series, and replace them with Voodoo branded products (as long as they can keep prices similar). The a6000 series d series and slimelines will probably stay within the HP name however

[Maeztro @ Jul 24th 2008 7:21AM]

You got to figure in tough economic times, luxury items (like an over the top PC) are the first to get the axe.

[kccboy2004 @ Jul 24th 2008 7:21AM]

I wouls miss Voodoo. Gotta get one quick.

[CosterMonger @ Jul 24th 2008 10:31AM]

in tough economic times 'the rich' have even more money :)

[GenBanks @ Jul 24th 2008 7:32AM]

Will still sell the envy, only just on the HP website?

[azu @ Jul 24th 2008 8:07AM]

AXE BLACKBIRD :)

voodoo has a legacy.. blackbird is just. bahhh

[ShadowKain @ Jul 24th 2008 8:12AM]

Ah Voodoo, don't let em' change you! I cringe most times when Speciality brands are bought up and eventually merged. IMHO, these brands lose the once special crispness and personal-consumer based relation you had when you ordered, bought, and enjoyed. I am glad companies like Digital Storm are still in the boutique business. But many still argue that business is slowly dimishing due to the increasing popularity of laptops. It may get smaller, but it will never go away. There were always be power users, and until we make computers small enough to qualify for Lost In Space or Minority Report, and cool enough at the same time, I see the boutique business still going. It's a shame HP is doing this, as I don't trust them to handle the already HP-in-ized Voodoo brand. But you know they may not botch it up totally, a la Alienware with Dell. Sometimes I think its better just to leave the little guys alone, its what makes them unique and desirable.

Cheers :)

[Kelmon @ Jul 24th 2008 8:36AM]

If HP merges Voodoo into its existing product lines and then axes the brand then you've got to ask what the point of the acquisition was in the first place. It makes sense to merge as much of the production and support as possible to reduce overall costs, but much more and you lose what made the brand special in the first place. In much the same way as I don't understand why Dell maintains both XPS and Alienware brands, I don't understand why HP would maintain Blackbird and Voodoo when both cater to the same audience.

I'd bet on Blackbird going away, but HP would probably be wise to separate Voodoo from their normal site, as it is today. Voodoo is, essentially, a "cool" brand and you can't have that if the customer is shopping with HP because HP is not "cool". I don't care how much JayZ they put in their ads, HP makes computers for business and they need the brand differentiation to maintain Voodoo's ability to seem "special". They can link from the main HP site to Voodoo's but the two sites should appear to the customer to be separate, even though we know they are not.

[black @ Jul 24th 2008 10:40AM]

Well keep in mind a lot of the effort of the Blackbird products are coming from the Voodoo studio, and not HP itself. And as long as there is a viable market for 'luxury computers', there is still a business case for Voodoo.

[wonkydonkydotnet @ Jul 24th 2008 11:20AM]

The usual point of these things is managerial incompetence.

A Founder is usually an entirely different beast than your average garden-variety bean-counting, crank-turning CEO. CEOs are not creatives or inventors.

The history of american business is littered with dead/zombie brands that were once sold by their founders to acquirers who had no clue what to do with them or where to take them, and who eventually just stifled, ignored or bruised them to death. Ex: Buick used to hold a few land-speed records.

[Daza @ Jul 24th 2008 8:42AM]

I sell a lot of HP/Compaq at work and I'm glad they're bringing out the Voodoo line to general consumers.

Why?

- Compaq are budget focussed, entry level notebooks with great value but can't handle multitasking and only have entry level dual core CPUs
- HP Pavilion's have better CPUs, bigger HDDs and more options when it comes to screen sizes and configurations. Still very basic dedicated video cards if any, so we're talking something like the 8400GS.

Above applies mainly to notebooks but similar notes for desktops.

With Voodoo they can come along and release a handful of good value models capable of playing newer games and having a more distinct style for a different audience.

Makes perfect sense to me. It irks me to no end to think that I can't recommend anyone a notebook or PC that can actually play games apart from The Sims or Solitare. Voodoo should fix all of this as long as their pricing is reasonable.

[vander @ Jul 24th 2008 8:50AM]

for some reason this saddens me.. I've been saving my money and buying my time till I can get the Voodoo laptop I really want, If now it is available en mass it will seem less.. well special for some reason. *shrug*

[black @ Jul 24th 2008 10:45AM]

The price alone is enough the shrug off all but the people who want it.

[black @ Jul 24th 2008 10:47AM]

The price alone is enough to shrug off all but the people who want it. Not everyone is going to blindly drop 2K or more on a non Apple product.

[Lazarpandar @ Jul 24th 2008 4:05PM]

So I read your first one and I was like eh, that makes sense.

Then I read your second one and thought GOD DAMN APPLE FANBOYYSSSSS

[qazeqaz @ Jul 24th 2008 9:56AM]

i never heard of black bird until just recently so i would want them gone lol

[Rahul Sood @ Jul 24th 2008 11:19AM]

Hi guys,

Being on the inside, and also being that I'm the founder of Voodoo and one of the key people setting up the integration, here's what I can tell you;

1) The Voodoo brand is important to HP, very important, so it will remain.

2) This is the next big step in our evolution, and it will give us the opportunity to expand our product line across the globe. Customers asked for it, so they get it --- that's the bottom line.

3) You can look forward to an expanded portfolio, more widely available, with local support and service. This is the kind of thing that Voodoo does not offer today but needs to offer in order to grow effectively.

4) No, it doesn't have Mac OS on it. ..but it's amazing what kinds of changes can occur in a few years.

thanks!

Rahul Sood
www.rahulsood.com

[xB Owner @ Jul 24th 2008 1:32PM]

So now that you are being officially absorbed into the mother ship, does it mean that your prices are going to become more competitive?

It is one thing for a boutique brand to maintain premium prices. It is something completely different when it is just "branding" by one of the biggest companies in the business.

[justin @ Jul 24th 2008 5:21PM]

"4) No, it doesn't have Mac OS on it. ..but it's amazing what kinds of changes can occur in a few years."

Don't plan on getting psystar'd or anything. Apple Legal sustains itself with human blood.

And soy.

[Cray @ Jul 25th 2008 8:26AM]

Rahul,

Thanks for clearing up some things. I however am curious about the Blackbird, what can you tell us if anything about its status after the merge?

~Cray

[Rahul Sood @ Jul 25th 2008 12:20PM]

Blackbird will remain, we will expand distribution.

[Loonyx @ Jul 24th 2008 11:24AM]

Don't they realize that 99.99% of Voodoo Purchasers, buy because of the name? What a wasted purchase if they get rid of the name. Guess i'll have to reconsider an upstart customized pc biz again haha. Voodoo--bought! Alienware--bought! um are there others i can't remember.

[Karl Hackswell @ Jul 24th 2008 1:57PM]

There used to be Monarch PC out of atlanta (once named gaming system of the year by Maximum PC) but they went out of business not too long ago.

[alllrighty then @ Jul 24th 2008 12:40PM]

as long as they let voodoo work independently it could be great

[drunksaru @ Jul 24th 2008 2:50PM]

Hewlett Packard Voodoo - HPV (Human Papillomavirus) lol

I think the name Compaq should disappear and have it be HP/Voodoo. Compaq is the budget line PC's but HP has pretty cheap computers too so i think that should merge. Keep HP as the Multimedia based computer and transition the blackbird to Vooodoo line and call it Voodoo Blackbird..sound so much cooler that way. The Blackbird comes with the voodoo keyboard and mouse already anyway. .

[Kaveh @ Jul 24th 2008 5:25PM]

wow, there goes Voodoo now, I hope Falcon Northwest stays on its own at least

[David D @ Jul 24th 2008 5:48PM]

I really hope that Voodoo doesn't get the axe. Partially because they make cool computers, and partially because I hate HP. After a little research I found a $200 price difference between the Voodoo Envy and the MacBook Air, the Air being cheaper. Don't even begin to think that I'm an Apple fanboy, but you really can't ignore the difference. The MacBook also doesn't have the whole "Vista thing". Anyway, Voodoo has been a pretty cool innovator in the laptop department, and I'm really excited about the VIOS that's shipping on the Envy. Their idea for the ethernet being built into the power brick wasn't too bad either. Hopefully HP will at least integrate those things into their next lineup of lappys, but I mostly hope that they won't axe Voodoo. BTW, I don't give a crap about Blackbird.