It is no secret that over the last several years, Hewlett-Packard has made a total hash of anything and everything mobile it has tried to accomplish. Sure, HP has long played in the "slate" tablet market to completely zero success. It acquired Palm for $1.2 billion, took all of its assets and drove it all into the ground. Now WebOS is in the open software slipstream with a developer framework dubbed Enyo to create WebOS apps (good luck with any of that!), and the remnants of Palm have been swept into a quiet operation called GRAM. Let's get our two cents out there on GRAM - it won't go anywhere.
With such a negative mobility track record, can anyone seriously believe that HP can pull off developing a smartphone?
Well yes, as it turns out. In a recent interview with Fox News, HP CEO Meg Whitman - who is just days away from completing her first full year on the job - has loudly noted that HP must build a smartphone. Let's be clear here: we believe that Meg Whitman is a great CEO choice for HP, and we very much agree with and like all of the moves she has made to date to begin pushing HP in the right directions again. That includes her decision to hold on to the PC business - which we believe is crucial to HP.
Whitman understands that the entire global community - especially the global communities in emerging countries and regions - uses mobile devices as the primary - and possibly only - means of conducting all electronic business. Smartphones are rapidly becoming truly globally pervasive and Whitman believes that HP must be a direct smartphone player in order to tap into that global electronic stream - and the revenue it will lead to.
Whitman is clear about several things. First, the company simply cannot screw up again as it did with Palm. It's next mobile efforts on the smartphone side (and we assume Whitman means as well on the consumer tablet front) simply cannot fail.
Second, Whitman believes that HP still has a bit of time on its hands to deliver - best to get it right than to hurry up and get it wrong yet again. Well, Whitman may not have as much time on its hands as she thinks to get it right.
Third, Whitman has made it exceedingly clear that acquiring Research in Motion (RIM) is not an option for HP - great news! There is and there would be absolutely no synergy between HP and RIM. RIM needs a hugely well-established device manufacturer (think Samsung) that can make full use of RIM's assets. HP would be the equivalent of staring into the abyss for RIM. Well, it's certainly good to know that Whitman understands RIM is a dead end for HP.
But…where exactly does this leave HP and Whitman? The answer is that it doesn't leave them anywhere. We'll put it down here for the record that HP is not going to deliver any smartphones on its own (or yet another mobile operating system) that the world will embrace and that HP can sell enough of (if any) to gain the kind of market penetration and traction it needs to tap into the global smartphone revenue stream.
So once again …where exactly does this leave HP and Whitman? Does it buy HTC? HTC doesn't have the weight or market share to help HP. So we think not.
Nokia - a Dark Horse, a White Knight
That leaves the almost obvious choice hanging out there - Nokia. That begins to make sense to us. A Nokia acquisition would instantly buy HP the global smartphone sales channels it would need to reach the global communities Whitman understands she needs to have HP reach. Nokia delivers the right hardware - let's take the Lumia 920 and 820 - these smartphones are ready made to turn into HP devices. They already exist and they are exceedingly well-designed, and with HP's global marketing capabilities, they would have huge advertising reach - which the current Nokia simply cannot come close to matching. It would jump start Lumia sales in ways that Nokia cannot.
Next, there is Windows Phone 8 and Microsoft. Would Microsoft "love" to see HP become part of a Windows Phone 8 delivery system? Damn straight it would! HP and Microsoft are intimate on many different levels - adding ready-made Nokia Lumia devices to the mix would be a natural fit. Pooling Microsoft and HP marketing and advertising resources to reach every global community changes the dynamics is ways that Nokia-Microsoft can't.
Nokia, in essence, would become HP's smartphone design center and manufacturing arm. Microsoft remains HP's operating system partner. HP doesn't have to worry about getting the mobile operating system or the smartphone hardware right. Windows Phone 8 and the Lumia 920/820 are already right - and ready for HP to move into the mobile world.
Whitman's dream of a smartphone can come true. We'll leave it at that…for now.
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Edited by
Allison Boccamazzo 
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