HP aims to reclaim top spot for laptops

HP has announced a range of mobile initiatives aimed especially at business users - from small to large enterprises - including the "biggest rollout of laptops" in its history.

It also said it will enter the smart phone market later this year, as opposed to merely adding to its existing wireless devices based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system, though it was light on details.

Ted Clark, senior VP and GM for mobile computing within HP's imaging and personal systems division, said one goal for 2005 - HP's self-declared "year for mobility" - is to reclaim the top spot for market share in notebook PCs.

He called IBM's pending sale of its PC division to China's Lenovo a "great opportunity [for HP]" and said some CIOs are "nervous about the IBM situation".

He claimed CIOs see mobility as a top three issue this year. A poll of leading CIOs and other heads of IT by silicon.com just over a year ago found mobile and wireless important but other, more fundamental IT issues usually come first.

The HP push in mobility and wireless for businesses is shown in an initiative to offer hosted email based on Microsoft Exchange 2003 in the US - so that small businesses "can get email like the big corporate guys", according to Clark - and, separately, doing a deal with Good Technology for pushing emails out to mobile devices using Goodlink software.

"We will be able to go head to head with Blackberry in just about any scenario," he claimed.

While the jury may be out on HP's entry into very small form factor devices, its latest connected-laptops push was greeted with a nod of the head from analysts.

Barney Dewey, partner at consultancy Outlook 4Mobility, said: "Now that networks are faster… IT managers no longer see the mobile laptop as anything different to someone plugged into the internet. They can run regular VPNs. Mobility won't be any big thing to a laptop."

Other initiatives for 2005 include a wireless LAN assessment and set-up service, typically for smaller organisations needing not many but more than one access point, financing deals for small businesses, a digital pen for forms capturing and enhancing iPaqs to make 'walk up and print' services easier - especially with HP printers.

Nokia will remain a key partner in mobile but HP will look to additional alliances this year.