我们希望，惠普(HP)的PC大业，能真的找到属于自己的方向。
日前，惠普的 PC 业务出现了180度的大转变，该公司声称不会切割价值达400亿美元的 PC 部门。不过这似乎不能归功于新任CEO Meg Whitman ── 在她上任之初，便曾为拆分 PC 业务的计划背书过。
HP对PC业务摇摆不定的态度，已经不会再对供应链带来巨大影响了。事实上，HP决定用掉库存来制造最后一批TouchPad的举动，无疑缓解了稍早前供应链发现所面临的供过于求情况。
包括HP在内的所有PC厂商，都面临着一个真正的挑战──整体PC市场的命运。在上周一场电子组件产业协会所举办的会议中，IHS iSuppli公司半导体制造首席分析师Len Jelinek表示，IT经理们仍然对平板电脑兴趣缺缺。除非平板电脑真的能从娱乐设备转换成为可因应商务工作的装置，否则将无法获得重要的IT业务预算。
“PC仍是居主导地位的系统，”Jelinek说。“PC之所以重要，就是因为它是一部PC。个人计算机至今仍然被放在办公桌上。不过PC确实需要再创新。PC仍是IT人的最爱，因为他们可以控制所有PC里的内容。”
他指出，HP和Acer已经在PC市场做了许多尝试。包括之前试图改变市场的小笔电(netbook)。最初小笔电凭借着其价格点而取得良好的开展。然而，市面上充斥着太多的其它选择，因而导致小笔电的市场需求快速下降。
而Ultrabook──超轻薄笔电，是目前许多组件制造商寄托希望的所在，也可能是超轻薄笔电的外形，让制造商认为可以再给低迷的PC市场多一些刺激。然而，Ultrabook仍然面临功耗问题。这种产品依然使用触控屏幕。Ultrabook必须能以平板电脑的形式整合所有PC功能。“这很可能是一种杀手级应用，”Jelinek说。
HP会将目光转向Ultrabook吗？如果是，这家公司要花多久时间才能追上。为了与10几年前便已退出PC市场的IBM抗衡，惠普花了很大力气在其新的安全服务策略上。不过， IHS iSuppli 指出，与其它甚至未曾尝试过此类策略的供货商相比，HP在第二季确实卖出了较多的计算机。
然而，HP完全投入下一代PC市场的情况也不是不可能发生。这家企业的标语向来是创新(Invent)吧，我想！
编译： Joy Teng
本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文：： HP 'Back' in PCs: Now Invent the Ultrabook，by Barbara Jorgensen, EBN Community Editor
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HP 'Back' in PCs: Now Invent the Ultrabook
Barbara Jorgensen
Let's hope the PC drama at Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has played itself out for now.
Yesterday, HP made a 180-degree turn on its PC business, announcing it would not spin the $40 billion unit off after all. New CEO Meg Whitman doesn't deserve all the credit -- she had endorsed the spinoff plan earlier in her five-week-long career with HP. (See: HP Needs a Higher Bar for Whitman.)
HP's off-again, on-again relationship with its PC business has not impacted the supply chain so far. In fact, the decision to use up inventory on a last run of its TouchPad no doubt eased the oversupply situation the supply chain finds itself in as it enters the fourth quarter. (See: HP Chooses the Lesser of Two Evils.)
The real question facing HP -- as well as all other PC makers -- is the fate of the overall PC market. Supply chain executives got some guidance this week at the Electronic Components Industry Association executive conference. Len Jelinek, director and principal analyst for semiconductor manufacturing at IHS iSuppli, said the tablet fan base is still missing one significant group: IT managers. Until tablets make the transition from entertainment device to workhorse, they won't get a share of the all-important IT business budget.
"PC is still the dominant system," Jelinek told the conference. "It is still at the point where it is a computer. It sits on the desk. It computes. It needs another innovation. The desktop computer is still loved by the IT guys because they can still control the content."
HP and Acer Inc. have done well in the PC market, he said. The netbook, an attempt to change that market, started out well because of its price point. However, there were too many other choices in the market, and demand dropped off.
The ultrabook -- the super-thin notebook computer on which many component makers are pinning their hopes -- may be the form factor that lifts the PC out of the doldrums. It still faces power consumption issues, and it will have to integrate a touch screen. The ultrabook needs to be a flat tablet with all the operating power of a PC. "That could be the killer app," Jelinek says.
Will HP turn its eye toward the ultrabook? If so, it probably has a lot of catching up to do. The company is throwing all its marketing muscle behind its new suite of security services, measuring itself against IBM (which exited the PC market more than a decade ago). Still, as IHS iSuppli pointed out in September, HP sold more computers in the second quarter than any other vendor without even trying. (See: The 'Whoops' Business Strategy in the Supply Chain.)
If it applies itself fully to the next-generation PC, I wouldn't bet against HP. Its corporate mantra (I think) still is "Invent."
