> I am wondering what you are bothered by:
>
> 2. The realization that hp had been working on migration *things*
>    prior to the 11/14 announcement?

Of course, this has its own context... It seems that hp has, as we have been
saying for some time, been a major contributor to the erosion of the
ecosystem. Or, to borrow an expression, this is as one way as the streets of
downtown Dallas. Customers were being told to leave (the 3000), and not come
back.

There is small comfort in being able to say "I told you so", but that is the
only comfort some of us have. Now that I know the answer to my own unasked
question, I'm still kicking myself for not asking Winston Prather, at one of
the HP World 2001 SIGs or round tables, if the vertical market approach was
providing enough growth to leave the 3000 viable, in spite of the attrition
of large shops.

Look, I know that hp has to follow the money, or at least some of it, most
of the time. But there are limits. hp has shown some good business sense,
avoiding certain markets. I don't expect to see an hp photocopier, or an hp
MP3 player (the hPod?). OTOH, when hp decides to enter a market, for
instance, when they decided to offer their own Windows CE device, they had
to "spend money to make money". The Jornado survived market consolidations,
back when Palm was trouncing CE and Philips, Everex, Vadem and most others
abandoned the market, and the Jornado was a respectable device. The 3000 did
not appear get this kind of investment in its own growth or ecosystem. It's
own thing to prune the plant, so that it grows back fuller next year. It's
another thing to lay the axe to the root of the tree.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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