Get ready for some legal mastication. According to
DigiTimes' manufacturing sources, HP -- the world's leading supplier of PCs -- is said to be demanding that its manufacturing partners "refuse outsourcing orders from ASUStek." HP apparently "sent out a notice" to its partners threatening to reduce its own outsourcing volume for anyone who violates the demand. It's worth noting that
DigiTimes offers no evidence of HP's demand and its sources can be hit or miss in the industry. Having said that,
DigiTimes has a very good track record related to leaks in the netbook industry. The allegation becomes all the more interesting on the heels of yesterday's Gartner report that shows HP slipping into second place behind Acer in Europe due to
Acer's strong continental
netbook sales. While worldwide PC shipments rose 15 percent from last year thanks to a strong showing by both ASUS and Acer in the netbook segment, HP's share has remained stagnant at 18.4% of the total market. Perhaps it's time to reinstate that
internal spying program to prepare for some anti-competitive practices litigation, eh HP?
Read -- HP threatening notebook OEMs
Read -- HP drops to 2nd in Europe
posted Oct 15th 2008 7:35AM
Nice touch on that logo.
Boycott HP!! for unfair business practices...
Don't you mean boycott Compaq?
Compaq is owned by HP, not the other way around..
HP you F*** leave Asus alone.
Maybe instead of this, you guys should focus on shipping machines that don't come preloaded with AOL Trials and other antiquated bloatware....
Didn't microsoft get slapped by the DoJ for doing this same thing? Seems illegal to me.
This seems like the sort of thing Standard Oil would do a hundred years ago, only in that case it was preventing railroads from carrying competitors oil. Still, that leaves open the question as to whether HP controls a large enough market share-- and enough suppliers-- to have a true impact.
I don't believe MS did this, but intel did. IIRC Intel had exclusivity agreements in place with OEMs who would buy intel CPUs at a much lower cost if they only sold intel PCs.
This is the exact opposite: this OEM is threatening to stop doing business with IHVs that provide services for the OEM's competitors. Much worse, IMO.
If this is true, I'm not buying another HP anything... laptop, printer, you name it...
Or perhaps if HP put a proper processor (Atom) into its current form of netbooks, it will make OEMs more interested...
Yeah - 2133 with a 10" screen, Atom, non-disfiguring 6 cell battery as default and maybe internal HSPA support would be great. Instant-buy great really...
Don't forget putting the mouse buttons UNDER the touchpad.
Actually, I'd just like to see them upgrade their current VIA chip to the new Isiah...it's a decent margin faster than the 1.6Ghz Atom. I really like their mini-note design, I just think it needs more power, and I'd be sold.
Or you could just buy the superior ASUS. I have an M-51 and I love it.
Ah HP, what won't you do to maintain 1st place... I say you gather up some of your buddies, break into ASUStek and trash up the joint....
P.S. strong arm tactics don't work in the free market, someone else will make the parts cheaper and better...
Perhaps if you made a solid product like the new Mac Book Pro you would not be losing to sub $300 netbooks ...
Why isn't this guy banned? He goes around trolling with asinine comments all the time.
Does apple pay you, or did they just brainwash you?
I think he's trying to recruit Apple haters.
It would actually make sense
no surprise why their failing against the tasty fruit and netbooks from acer and asus
hp computers are ugly and horrible
This is pathetic. HP is pathetic.
I don't even know what they're worried about. Release the 2 netbooks they said they were going to release, and just shut the hell up. What ever happened to the low-end netbook they were going to release in conjunction with their Mini-note, which was supposed to be their high end? I don't see them even trying to remain competitive.
Furthermore, Acer, Asus, and this 15% increase in sales is most likely due to quantity, not overall revenue, isn't it? Margins on netbooks are slim, so let Acer overinflate their numbers by only stating quantity. They'll sell a lot of computers and make little money, while HP makes 15-25% profit (within the standard range) off $1000 laptops.
Or again, either compete, or keep quiet.
HP are downright bastards, and not just in terms of dodgy business practices.
* Computers loaded up with so much crapware that Vista takes about 4 mins to boot and be usable (yes, I timed one)
* Refusal to develop Vista drivers for scanners and printers that were only a couple of years old (the message on their website was essentially "go buy a new one")
* Warranty on their computers are voided as soon as you open the case. Even if it's just to upgrade the RAM.
* A netbook with a craptacular CPU, barely enough RAM and loaded with Vista. You know that's a problem right away....
* + Many more..
It's a shame really, because they have their Blackbird system, as well as the Voodoo brand. But I've been boycotting their stuff for a couple of years now.
@reloaded
I'll agree with you...but only on their consumer models. HP's business products are outstanding, No crapware, excellent support (New printers have drivers dating back to Windows 3.1 for chrissakes...old printers and PCs have Vista AND Server 2008 drivers available). When I was testing out vista in February of last year, HP was the most consistent on having Vista drivers available.
Most manufacturers have a section in their warranty that voids it as soon as the case is opened. It's there as an option for them in case you screw something up. In most cases they will still honor it.
-----------------------------
What I don't understand is Asus has OEM'd for HP for years. I was under the impression they still produced a lot of their boards. And I have a hard time believing HP is noticing enough of a difference in their laptop sales (especially when so much of it is business sales). This article just doesn't add up to me.
@reloaded - you forgot my favorite part - the internal hardware in their laptops are white listed in the BIOS. Basically, if you try to install any non-HP sanctioned hardware, the machine won't POST.
So if your wifi card goes bad, you gotta go to HP and pay $100 for a replacement (instead of $20 everywhere else).
Or say your laptop came with a 802.11G wireless card and you want to upgrade to N. Guess what, you can't because when they made your laptop, there wasn't an N card for it, thus no upgraded card is listed in your BIOS. Will they update the list for you? Nope, just go buy a new laptop buddy.
Or say you, like me, run Linux and the crappy Broadcom card that came with the laptop has zero official Linux support. You'd think it'd be easy to just drop in one of the many other brands out there that do support Linux, but nope, can't do. You just gotta live with an unsupported wireless card.
Personally, I am happy with my HP laptop overall. It was dirt cheap and the quality is very good for what I paid for it. But for this one reason alone, I will never buy another HP product. And if it weren't for NDISWrapper, this thing would have gone right back to the store (but I'm probably in the minority with that complaint).
@Kam
just to add.. I believe Foxconn is the company responsible for HP's new boards. That's the conclusion I've come to seeing all the new boards at work.. Not sure about laptops, but desktops for sure
well said...
thanks
First OFF RTFA "It's worth noting that DigiTimes offers no evidence of HP's demand and its sources can be hit or miss in the industry." Second this Engadget here can you really trust them for non-bias reporting. Let me think...NO! Epic Fail. What happened to just reporting about I don't know GADGETS. Who cares what these companies are doing as long as they put out kick ass gadgets.
There must be somthing in this story or HP would be onto their lawyers quickly.
Wow that's seriously underhanded and anti-competitive... Surely their best solution would be to design their own, superior netbook?
That would be the best solution for the consumer and for HP's public image, that's for sure. Of course, the option they would likely prefer would be to prevent anyone else from selling superior netbooks at a lower price point. That way, HP is the best game in town, and they gain increased sales without any of the hassle of designing a superior product at a competitive price. It's like free money!
what the hell is the rage with these netbooks anyway, theyre soo crappy and useless
Sounds like a whole bag of hurt
I feel sorry for all of the intelligent and respectful Apple users who get associated with idiots like you.
Well, I guess you can put a negative spin on anything.
"While worldwide PC shipments rose 15 percent from last year thanks to a strong showing by both ASUS and Acer in the netbook segment, HP's share has remained stagnant at 18.4% of the total market."
You could also say that HP had a 15% rise in PC shipments.
Oh, and good luck in court HP, you're going to need it.
No you clueless, Apple zealot of a troll you.
Apple's laptop division is currently a distant 7th amongst all vendors in the world.
Let me repeat that, Apple's laptop division is a DISTANT 7th amongst all vendors in the world.
So, HP has absolutely nothing to prove or fear when it comes to Apple of all companies.
Dell, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Sony, and Lenovo all come to mind before Apple even enters the picture.
Honestly, it depends on who is doing it and where, and how much HP has invested in them.
It's not uncommon at all for a Chinese factory, built by the US, with US money, for US products, to add a third shift and sell the products from that shift to the owner of the factory's competitors. Caterpillar has this situation now.
Does this mean HP is doing the right thing? Probably not, but I want more information before I make a judgment on this. Frankly, I'd just as soon they not offshore any manufacturing to Asia unless it's to an allied nation, not an aggressive one (China) or a "neutral" one (India). The fact that the US manufactures almost none of our own microchips anymore, and they are all being built in countries that are either openly hostile or in the cross hairs of an openly hostile nation (an in an earthquake zone on top of that) doesn't give me the warm fuzzies.
Hm, the world must be beautifull in black and white.
Meanwhile, we all benefit from the low wages of these "openly hostile" countries.
wow, both acer and asus are taiwanese companies.
That's pretty awesome.
If that's true, then I hope HP gets nailed by the DoJ.
This is sick.
Your ugly and horrible.
This was supposed to be a reply to "OCEAN ''CLAK'' 20th Account Happy"
How on earth it went down here I have no idea. Fix the commenting system engadget...add edit and delete buttons. And I beg you to fix the low rank fade theme. It sucks.
Please and thank you. :P
it appears engadget has made it impossible to reply to clack to try and keep people from feeding this huge troll.
My commodore 64 was instant on back in 1983 - it took about 1 second to start up. Most 'home computers' were then.
This annoys me from the get go because it starts out with MS saying 'a NEW feature called instant on' (its not new so that's bullshit number one) and that this 'instant on' would take 8 seconds (that's not 'instant' by any fucking definition of the word you deutsch bags).
This needs to be a hardware / software initiative and be given a lot more money / R&D by Microsoft - not just some tacked on software effort that is obviously a response to several similar features / initiatives for Linux that are out there.
I'd be happy as poop if they'd give me an instant-on XP. If they keep adding useless shit then we'll never get (back) to instant on. Vista is fine - but it is also loaded with useless shit (and so is OS X and a some this fancy-pantsy Linux distros that the kids are on about these days....). I'd just like the fucking OS to start up so I do crap without all the crap.
Do you guys have the ability to IP ban?
Arrgh, meant towards the 20th incarnation of clak.
it seems as though engadget has made it impossible to reply to clack. to get people to stop feeding what is possibly the biggest troll on the internets.
Mr. Ricker, would you care to ban this kid's IP?
hm. i can't seem to reply to Clack's 20th account. maybe he got banned again? i think it's time for an IP ban.
@ clack
you're calling me the troll? apparently you're so bad engadget had to make it so no one could reply to your comments. keep people from feeding the troll. clearly nobody wants you here. why don't you go away?
@ maveric101 and telepheedian
you two trolls are funny i have NO ip address lol
i went unknown when they tryed that at 14 lol
and i have access to over 70 macs lol,
@cak
Seriously, do you not have anything better to do? Like breathing?
You need to get out more.