Hewlett-Packard Co has been telling Wall Street that, on the back of its new OEM storage deal with Hitachi Ltd, it will take two or three quarters to get storage sales back up to where they were with its EMC Corp reseller relationship. HP claims orders for Hitachi arrays are 50% ahead of expectations and that it is winning 40% of bids against EMC. EMC told Merrill Lynch & Co that its losses are under 10%. Merrill’s latest roundup of corporate opinion suggests customers like – and are willing to buy into – the focused vision of companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Cisco and Sun, while Compaq and HP reportedly leave a more murky strategic impression.
