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4. HP's Return To Tablets
HP, which failed in its first foray into tablets with the WebOS TouchPad, is back in the game with its Windows 8 powered ElitePad 900. Whitman will likely face questions about whether HP is planning to target consumers with true tablets or with hybrids like the recently unveiled Envy x2.
HP is pitching the ElitePad 900 as a rugged and expandable tablet with the security and management that enterprise IT departments have been craving ever since iPads began trickling into their organizations.
5. The HP Smartphone
Whitman, in an interview with Fox Business News last month, said HP would eventually get back into the smartphone market in order to serve customers in countries where mobile devices are the main way people access the Internet.
Given HP's failed $1.2 billion Palm acquisition, and its subsequent $3.3 billion in goodwill and inventory write-offs, analysts aren't keen on the idea, and they'll no doubt be asking Whitman for more details on her plans.
"While the move makes sense strategically, we see it as a high risk move," Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek said last week in a research note to clients. "On top of adding costs and working capital burdens to an already stressed balance sheet, there could be additional write-offs."
PUBLISHED OCT. 2, 2012
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