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.
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?