HP Says Surface Tablet is Slow, A Little ''Kludgey''
HP's Todd Bradley talks about Microsoft's Surface, the company's tablet and smartphone strategy.
Todd Bradley, the executive vice president of HP's Printing and Personal Systems Group, recently said that Microsoft's self-produced Surface tablet isn't competition.
Outside Acer executives who were publicly vocal about the company's opposition against the Surface launch, Bradley's own views aren't surprising, as most Windows 8 partners have either welcomed Microsoft's hardware entry, or shrugged it off just as Bradley has done. But his personal view of the tablet is a little surprising.
"I'd hardly call Surface competition," Bradley said in an interview with IDG Enterprise. "One, very limited distribution. It tends to be slow and a little kludgey as you use it .... It's expensive. Holistically, the press has made a bigger deal out of Surface than what the world has chosen to believe."
Ouch. He goes on to report that HP doesn't plan to enter the consumer tablet market any time in the immediate future. HP will likely enter this space sometime next year, but consumers shouldn't expect to get their hands on anything until just before Christmas 2013. Even more, expect the company to move away from the traditional tablet form factor and focus on convertibles.
"Whether we go into tablets – there's a whole litany of ARM-based Android, ARM-based Microsoft, there's quite a grid," he said. "We'll be judicious about how we deploy against application availability in the enterprise, consumerization, and price points."
In the meantime, HP is focusing its tablet vision on the enterprise sector. "The Elite Pad is built for the enterprise; it's built on a 16:10 aspect ratio screen so you can view a whole page as opposed to format through a page," he said. "It's focused on backward compatibility of applications, it's focused on the ability to open it and service it, as opposed to return it."
In his interview with CiteWorld, he also talked about HP jumping back into the smartphone sector, acknowledging that it's exceptionally challenging here in North America.
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"We have to be in the personal devices business, the personal systems business. There are a number of ways of how are you going to be in the phone business, whether we partner or build, none of that stuff we've decided about," he said.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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house70 Hey, HP, less chat, more splat!Reply
AFAIK, your hardware sucks big time, from laptops to desktops and even printers, where you used to rule.
"Thanks" for killing WebOS and the Touchpad, BTW. You are dead to me. -
Yeah, HP screwed me on the ipaq GPS as well. I still have the great HP 48 calc from the college days, but other than that i would't purchase another HPReply
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hate machine The Printer and ink company is butt hurt that their software partner is outdoing them in hardware. The Surface is quick and responsive and of solid high quality construction. Wish I could say the same about HPs crappy stiff cheapo plastic laptops, desktops and printers.Reply
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thillntn After replacing countless power supplies over the years in HP computers, I have this aggravating sizzle sound and a blinking green led image in my mind every time someone mentions them. Please focus on printers and get out of the rest of it.Reply -
gravewax only slow and a little Kludgy? So is this an admission from HP that it is superior to anything they are capable of creating?Reply -
If PC and tablet makers are so pissed at M$. then It is time for them to make PCs that come with a Type 1 hyporvisor installed, and let the user install their OS or OSs of choice! The days of PCs that are chained to one brand of OS should be over! If a PC maker, Apple or M$, brands and builds their own hardware fine, but on third party hardware any attempt at forcing an OS on users, should be an antitrust violation! If M$ wants to force third party PC makers to use windows 8, then PC makers should have the option of making PC with a Type 1 Hyporvisor that can host multible OSs at one time, with the Hyporvisor in controll of the PC's hardware and drivers!Reply
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DRosencraft TypeOneToRuleThemAllIf PC and tablet makers are so pissed at M$. then It is time for them to make PCs that come with a Type 1 hyporvisor installed, and let the user install their OS or OSs of choice! The days of PCs that are chained to one brand of OS should be over! If a PC maker, Apple or M$, brands and builds their own hardware fine, but on third party hardware any attempt at forcing an OS on users, should be an antitrust violation! If M$ wants to force third party PC makers to use windows 8, then PC makers should have the option of making PC with a Type 1 Hyporvisor that can host multible OSs at one time, with the Hyporvisor in controll of the PC's hardware and drivers!Reply
What options are there for PCs? Apple won't make their OS for anything other than Apple computers (mind you, you can put Windows on a Mac). Linux, whether you like it or not, isn't sold on a disc meaning you need an existing OS or another computer, to download Linux first. Furthermore, Linux isn't exactly easy for inexperienced users. For all the faults that can be found with MSFT, Windows is the only mainstream OS solution. Anyone who is sophisticated enough to use Linux would just as easily be able to reformat their drive and do a clean install of a burned Linux distro. For the mass market they'd just be saving a little on Windows upfront and spending more on the actual full/OEM version when they have to buy it. -
randomizer DRosencraftLinux, whether you like it or not, isn't sold on a disc...Reply
Actually it is, but it's not sitting on Walmart shelves.