By William Fellows
Hewlett-Packard Co yesterday underscored the importance of its info utility technologies in its attempt to catch the second wave of internet computing after missing the first. Products and services using the technologies – still in HP’s labs – will contribute to revenue this year, CEO Lewis Platt said. HP’s Internet 2 campaign will be primarily focused on driving server sales; second, around creating enabling infrastructure; and third, deriving revenue from per-transaction, or per-usage services it will sell based upon the technology it acquired with Open Skies last October.
Platt said that the various groups within the computer and imaging businesses would be given more autonomy that will enable them to act more nimbly in the market. He said each would unfurl out their own messages over the next few weeks but that all would be flown under the corporate banner of e-services it is trying to push. A new internet business unit reportedly headed by Joe Beyers is expected to be created under the enterprise computing solutions group with five reports including Verifone and an e- services team run by Nigel Ball which in turn will oversee Jim Bell’s Embedded software group which has developed the Chai Java clone. Platt said that HP decided to keep the printer and computer businesses together because they essentially share the same customers and channels. He noted that HP’s use of an internet industry publishing infrastructure would be key to its Internet 2 success.
HP huddled up around securities industry analysts yesterday to give them guidance on how their revenue and earnings forecast models could be tweaked to account for the spin-out of the measurement business.
