Ed Hardy over at Brighthand has written an article that predicts that HP will leave behind the handheld market. I’m not sure how much of a real prediction this is given that HP itself came out earlier this year to say that it would increasingly focus on converged devices like the hw6900 and rw6800.
The article takes look at some of the reasons why this move might happen: HP has not had a truly successful device since the early iPAQs (designed by Compaq before it was acquired) and the HTC-designed iPAQ h1900). Most recent iPAQs recently have been designed by HTC and simply badged by HP. HP’s move into the smartphone market has not been without challenges: Early models failed to live up to expectations and the latest iPAQ hw6900 is still only available in Europe (despite being announced back in February 2006.
Like Dell (also facing rumours of a departure from the handheld market), HP will need to introduce new models in a timely fashion, properly promote them and invest in R&D to remain relevant in this space. Otherwise, companies like HTC, Motorola and Samsung that continue to innovate will continue to gain marketshare and eventually shut it out whether it wants to be or not.