News and Analysis

More HP news, more sad economic news, and GameStop is starting to show their hand.

The HP Mess:
WebOS is apparently not dead, so it sounds like it's going to be a for-sale operating system. Well, if HP is trying to make an Android and OS alternative maybe, I dunno – though if they do manage that devs are going to want to learn about programming it. Oh, and to make things weird webOS runs better on an iPad than the HP tablets.

So did all these big announcements help HP? No, it looks like stock dropped 20% admit a crisis of confidence as HP seemed to essentially give up on their core business.

So let me spell it out career-wise: the fallout from HP may affect your career, but DO NOT send them a resume right now, as I said yesterday. If they implode (and I give them a good chance to do so), that's going to reshuffle a lot of tech markets.

Oh and to make HP more miserable, there's speculation there could be other bids for Autonomy.

Economics/Geekonomics:
The U.S. will probably have a record low of housing completions – since the Census Bureau started tracking it. That's good in that there's less houses being added to a huge inventory, but it means less work for people and that we've got a big housing backlog to play through. Housing isn't going back to "normal."

Sears is having some minor layoffs. It's very small, but this makes me nervous – they're huge, but their income is declaiming.

Anime and Manga:
A look at what a post-Borders world means for manga.  An interesting read.

Video Games:
. . . and now we see the final part of GameStop's strategy. They're doing a game streaming service. So it looks ilke GameStop is going to try and do it all – and they might be able to. I'm still bullish on them, by the way, so keep them in mind for a job.

So I guess it's not just everyone want's a music service, they want a game distribution service. GameStop is uniquely positioned however, something we may need to analyze in depth . . .

Sony believes the Vita will lure tablet/mobile players. Their idea is intriguing, that mobile and handheld can be separate demographics (technically true). They seem to be working on the Serious Game market. I can't say they're right – but it's intriguing to look at their lines of thought.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do you think is a viable business model for GameStop – and is it like the one they're building?

– Steven Savage

HP gets . . . oh hell, just read the news.

OK, if you haven't been following the geekonomic news, HP is stopping it's webOS sales, buying Autonomy, and possibly spinning off the PC division. They may still work on WebOS itself. So out of phones, out of tablets, and who knows what else is going on.

This Q&A is very helpful

So, takeaways:

• Watch this space. With people also frittering around figuring out the Google/Motorola business, don't ignore what's going on here, or vice versa.
• For the love of Babbage, do not send HP a resume right now. They are looking to make major, serious changes.
• They threw around a lot of money for Autonomy. If this crashes and burns, they may be in trouble.
• This is enough of a radical gamble it could decimate them.
• It appears that data and data management is a big issue for them, so services are probably one of their goals. This is intriguing as the hardware/ecosystem combo model may be gaining ground.

Whew, crazy times.

Economics/Geekonomics:
Gorgeous: The Idiot's Guide to the S&P Credit Downgrade. Read NOW.

Geek Politics/Geekonomics:
With Rick Perry in the race, he'll be talking the 'Texas Miracle' which kinda . . . isn't if you do any research.  Invictus of Ritholtz points out Texas has some serious problems with the state. I'd also note that where Texas does well, it's not a model good for or even extendable to the nation. Unfortunately we're gonna keep hearing about this, and our economy does not need any more half-assed theories.

Anime and Manga:
Jmanga launches, and here's a huge roundup at Mangablog (along with a lot of other stuff, but the roundup is nice). We'll be hearing more over time.  By the way, you should just be subscribing to Mangablog anyway.  Of course we plan to keep an eye on Jmanga here.

Music:
Geez, everyone is launching a music service and now RIM is getting into the effort. Honestly, music services are the new little black dress of tech companies. Anyway, this does tell me RIM is trying to save itself and is willing to get with the times – but the fact is a music service is a very ecosystem move, which could mean they plan to get seriously radical and expansive – or they're just throwing this out there and hoping to be less in danger. I'm curious enough to keep an eye on this (and the entire trend of course) but don't know if it'll help them.

Could it be that everyone MUST have a music system now? Is it just normal?

Social Media:
Groupon isn't looking to hot. Well, none of us are surprised.

Video Games:
GameStop sales down, digital up, and some other news. Preowned up, digital up INSANELY. Looks like their plans are paying off for now.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: OK, look, we had our second big announcement of the week. What do you think is next?

– Steven Savage