The merger of the two computer
giants, each of which has an impressive product portfolio, inevitably raises
the question of how to avoid internal competition within the combined company. Although
in this respect the leadership of HP and Compaq has not made any statements (Chapter
Carly Fiorina HP confined itself to the observation that the new company with
special responsibility approach to this issue), you can try to estimate how HP
product line will change after the merger. Let's start with the desktop . the more of them that Compaq receives about half of its income, a
HP -t part. Because of the companies in the portfolio of a large number of
models of a class and a deep crisis in this sector of the computer market
(which is also one of the main reasons for the merger) should expect major
changes in the lineup HP. In 1998, during the absorption of Digital Equipment
Guide Compaq decided this question in the simplest way - all DEC computers with
Intel-architecture have been removed from production (except for one model
laptop UltraNote). Such an approach is unacceptable today for HP - Compaq takes
a strong position on the desktop market however and produced a series of HP
desktops Vec-tra has a fairly large number of buyers. So the question of what
model of Compaq DeskPro will be phased out and which are included in the lineup
of the new HP, replacing a similar model Vec-tra, will be very difficult.
However, integration can facilitate the transition started in the spring of
Compaq's new series of desktops and notebooks Evo, which a year later was to
replace Deskpro. The same can be said of the Gaza Intel-based servers, which
also holds an almost complete coincidence of the model number of the two
companies (for Except for models for small businesses worth less than $ 1
thousand. that HP had not previously released). Speaking of Unix-servers, it is
safe to assume that in the near future will remain the main platform series
NR9000, which occupies much stronger market position than the AlphaServer, and
in the middle of this decade will move to the IA-64, which, after failure
Compaq from the further development of the Alpha architecture was for both
companies strategic platform enterprise servers. In connection with the merger
prospects of survival used in the AlphaServer Tru64 Unix operating system are
minimal - in the spring, work began on transferring it to the IA-64 platform,
but since HP- UX already supports Itanium, it is unlikely that HP will continue
to guide this project. In the sector of storage systems can also be expected
phasing out overlapping disk arrays, and backup devices. It should be borne in
mind that the company made a
bid for different formats of tape drives: HP focuses on Ultrium and DLT1, while
the Compaq SDLT drives actively promoted and AIT. If
you go to the line of printers and scanners HP, the merger with Compaq to them,
obviously, it does not affect, as this company was not present in the sector
Printing and Imaging, but it can cause serious damage to Lexmark and other
competitors HP, to cooperate actively with Compaq. It is worth noting that the
design of the merger to be completed only in early 2002, so In the coming
months product lines of the two companies are likely to remain unchanged.
Posted By: Wasim Javed
