the creation of the sleek iPod
While it sells more PCs than any other company in the world, according to the research firm IDC, H.P. does not even make the top 20 when it comes to smartphones. The gap in sales is more startling considering that smartphones are hand-held computers.
Analysts have forecast that sales of smartphones, currently about equal to the annual sales of laptops, will surpass total PC sales by 2012. When discussing the acquisition of Palm, H.P. executives noted that such growth figures for the smartphone market helped persuade them to make a bold, risky move.
“The attractiveness of the smartphone market is compelling to us,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president for H.P.’s personal systems group who joined H.P. in 2005 after serving as Palm’s chief executive.
Palm had spent years working up to the 2009 release of its Pre phone — a product meant to challenge the runaway success of Apple’s iPhone and products from Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry.
Palm hired a number of talented engineers to build its own brand of mobile device software, including some of Apple’s iPhone engineers. Its chief executive, Jon Rubinstein, was one of the Apple executives responsible for the creation of the sleek iPod.
Mr. Rubinstein is expected to remain with the company, although his role was not made clear Wednesday by H.P.
Palm accounts for about 5 percent of smartphone sales in the United States, according to IDC. Palm was also slow to recognize the important role that applications made to run on smartphones played on increasing smartphone sales. Palm has only several hundred applications while Apple and Android apps number in the tens of thousands.
In February, Palm warned of weak demand for its products. It
DVD Ripperrecently put itself up for sale. Computer makers like H.P., Dell and Lenovo were mentioned as possible suitors, as was the Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.
