HP unveils new PCs in massive product roll-out

It may be sitting pretty atop the PC market, but Hewlett-Packard isn't going to sit still.

The world's largest PC manufacturer plans to roll out 50 new products Tuesday at a conference in Berlin, the largest such product refresh in the Personal Systems Group's history. Of those products, HP added new touches to just about everything, freshening up its TouchSmart all-in-one desktop, commercial and consumer notebook lines, as well as two machines within its high-end gaming brand, Voodoo PC.

The new TouchSmart: It lost a lot of weight in the past year. Click on the image to see more pictures of HP's new lineup.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

While it's that time of year for product refreshes, this is more than the usual speed bump or spec tweak. Though competitors like Dell, Acer, and Lenovo are increasingly focusing on consumer retail PCs, HP is showing that it doesn't want to give up any of the ground it's gained over the last couple quarters.

"They're fortunate for being in right place at right time: being in consumer, and being in retail," said Richard Shim, PC analyst with IDC. "They're showing they're not taking that for granted, and keeping consumers engaged in the products."

It's a tough task when most PCs are made by the same manufacturers with products from shared suppliers. That's where HP hopes its new and improved TouchSmart PC comes in.

It's slimmed down in size--far more minimalist in design concept--and price compared with the original model, but the key is really the improved touchscreen interface. Exterior design used to be a way to stand out, but with a category in decline like desktops, a unique software experience could be an attention-getter.

Offering an experience that you can't get from a Windows-based Dell, or even an Apple iMac, is complicated, said Shim. "That really separates the major players from the minor players, since only the big guys can afford to do this kind of thing. HP is taking advantage of its position in the market."

The new HP-only interface is also a kind of "end-run" around Microsoft's Windows we'll be seeing more often, said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for The NPD Group.

It's already happening in the mininotebook category, where instead of being limited to one option for an operating system, PC vendors are offering different flavors of Linux, as well as alternate interfaces that sit on top of Windows.

Design continues to be a priority for HP, as evidenced by the new products, from the high-end to the refreshed line of consumer notebooks, to the new brushed aluminum finish for its commercial Elite line.

But it's the Voodoo brand where HP is most able to experiment with new looks.

Last week, Rahul Sood, Voodoo PC's founder and current CTO of HP's global gaming business, released photos of him cutting his birthday cake with the famously thin MacBook Air. In the accompanying blog, Sood slyly remarked that he "wouldn't be needing this notebook for long anyways."

The Voodoo Envy 133

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

That's because HP's got its own razor-thin notebook now, called the Voodoo Envy 133. Though the price (starts at $2,099) puts the machine out of reach for most mainstream PC buyers, the ultrathin and light Envy is HP's attempt to position the Voodoo brand name in the same arena as Apple and Lenovo. For now Voodoo still has limited awareness outside the gaming and performance PC enthusiast crowds. As with the Blackbird 002 gaming desktop, the Envy will tie HP's recognizable brand to up-and-coming Voodoo.

The other Voodoo product released Tuesday is a departure for the brand in another way. A new gaming tower, the Voodoo Omen, is unlike anything HP has released before, and has no real counterpart in terms of design in the gaming world. The Omen is stark and simple on the outside, with brushed aluminum tower with the Voodoo logo on the face replacing colorful plastic. It's nearly the exact opposite of last year's Blackbird, or Acer's recent foray into the market.

Despite all this, there's still big challenges for HP ahead as it attempts to differentiate its products from the rest of the field and offer a wide array of products. Not only are they trying to take on Apple in terms of design and innovation, but it's still doing battle with and old, but suddenly resurgent foe, Dell. Plus, Acer is selling notebooks like hotcakes, and even Asus is trying to push its way into the consciousness of the mainstream PC buyer.

So despite the progress the company has made, HP can't get comfortable.

"The challenge for them, is that other guys will do same thing," observed Shim of IDC. "The difficulty for HP is to integrate new technology and new innovation and still remain price competitive."

[humanssssss]

I would never buy HP products ever again. Expensive, poor quality, and worse of all they have bad technical support. A lot of incompetents at HP. A year ago, I bought an HP inkjet, and about 4 months later, it died on me. I contacted HP for a replacement, HP refused and had me do a lot of runaround. HP used to make good product, I still have my HP calculator, but lately their products are horrible, kinda like Chinese made products. Works for about a month, then it died.

[ranch2k]

Erica Ogg, did you meant "The world's Largest" ???
in the following sentence?

"The world's argest PC manufacturer plans to roll out 50 new products Tuesday at a conference in Berlin, the largest such product refresh in the Personal Systems Group's history."

[john55440]

My 2002 HP desktop computer Just Works, and hasn't required one single repair. I don't know anything about HP's technical support, because I have never needed it. I plan on buying a new HP desktop computer in the near future.

[vtorch]

Interesting product or products. I have been a big fan of HP, I have bought 4 machines and all of them still work. This is a product that I will surely look into.

Looks like someone spelled "Largest" wrong.

[NPGMBR]

My first exeerience with HP PCs was in the early 90s when a friend had an unruly HP PC that literally had a mind of its own. My next PC was a Dell and to be honest I was not impressed. Then last year (despite my anxiety) I bought an HP Pavillion dv9000 running Vista. I have to say that this PC is hands down the best PC I have ever owned. HP has really stepped up its game and I hope they don't fall back on that.

[Peterc_150]

Where is there eeePC equivalent? I think they have missed the boat. Desktops are dead and laptops are going that way too.

[Sithembewena]

I own an HP6715b notebook with AMD Turion 64x2 Dual Core CPU...A wonderful, solid thing!

...BUT....

HPs love affair with ATI will cost them my patronage. TERRIBLE driver support for Linux! I will (sadly) get rid of my trusty HP and look to Asus or Dell.

[thelemurking]

I have been nothing but happy with every single HP product I have purchased for home and work. The only exception is a home printer (Photosmart 7660) which had no Vista 64 drivers and required me to load the default 5660 with limited functionality. With that being said, I have about 30-40 HP DX2200s / 2250s at work and they are excellent little machines. Four of them run 24 hours a day and the only time they get rebooted is on a new software load.

I still use an old HP laptop that runs iTunes for my iPod, it's sort of the living room computer now, sits beside my couch if I need to do something while watching TV, like pop into a LOST chat room and discuss where the island went but that laptop has been great. The only thing I would change would be upgrading that 40gb harddrive.

[TheWiiKid]

I love HP. Speaking of eee where is the ASUSECOBOOK ?

To humanssssss,

> HP used to make good product, I still have my HP calculator, but lately their products are
> horrible, kinda like Chinese made products.

Watch your mouth when you say stupid words as above.

As you know, apple manufactures most of its product in China. The latest iPhone 3G is made in China.

The major reason why you bought low quality products made in China because you pay for it. The price always tells you how much you should expect.

Don't be shame that you are poor so that you have to buy cheap products to work around.

Walmart earns lots of money from China and slaves many works there. How can you expect good quality products without paying the corresponding price tag.

Thank again.

As I knew, the U.S.A produces the world most reliable cars, such as Taurus.

Everyone knows:)

[Greg5A]

I bought a new HP Pavilion Desktop with XP Media Center Edition right when Vista was introduced. I stayed with XP, however.

During the first four months, my new HP computer crashed three times. The only thing HP Tech Support could do was to restore my system to "factory defaults" to get it running again.

This wiped off all my user-installed software and Microsoft Office files. it was a nightmare. Fortunately, I had backups on everything, but I had to do a complete reinstall of my software and files three times.

The HP Tech Support manager in India blamed the problems on IE 7 and suggested going back to IE 6.

An online friend, who is the computer guru for his company, also suggested using Norton SystemWorks to ride herd on my system. I installed SystemWorks, which found and corrected literally hundreds of errors on my system.

I've been using SystemWorks ever since and my system has been stable--however, I have two sets of backups, just in case.

As far as HP Tech Support is concerned, I was astounded that when my brand-new HP computer crashed, they tried to sell me a new "better" computer for about $2,000. Their tech support people seemed very much interested in making sales and selling new equipment.

The experience left a bad taste in my mouth--and I still don't know to this day if it safe to upgrade to IE 7. I don't want to risk crashing my system again.

[i_made_this]

I don't understand the continuation of all these tears about the "tech-support-in-India" deal. They speak better and clearer English than most North Americans. And most every OEM has outsourced tech support to India long ago - and that's only if you have a need to use your telephone for what the OEM's view as contract disputes - a lousy move to begin with - you want this stuff in writing and you can take that to the bank! Even the OEM's - HP in particular - are telling us something but too few people are listening. Do this by email or if prompt results are required, do this on the OEM's tech support IM. You've got your proof of the whole history in writing. And it's easier than talking tech jargon over the phone with someone who's CV is in sales and marketing. But IM oir email is different - that's where they assign their tech's cause it's all recorded in written records that'll stand up in case of a contract dispute. I learned this from Dell - NEVER seek tech support by phone.

[angry jubu]

*Expensive, poor quality, and worse of all they have bad technical support. A lot of incompetents at HP*

Who today, apart from Apple and (possibly) Lenovo, *doesn't* have lousy tech support? I won't even bother with extended warranties any longer; if I purchase one at all for my next system, I'll get one from Square Trade. They cover it for about 1/4 of the price of a manufacturer's warranty, the only difference being that they don't offer tech support - but who needs it? I ALWAYS end up doing the diagnostic work myself. I can't remember the last time I spoke to a tech support person who wasn't totally useless.

[awilensky]

I had cancer, inoperable BTW, until I purchased an HP desktop with Vista. I am now well again, thanks to HP.

[mtoc]

I am not a great fan of touchscreen. I like 5 button mouse! new HP desktop looks snazzy(a la
Imac) but is the visual SW experience like MAC! in my opinion Vista is functional but not
exciting. there is something theatrical about OS 10. that elevates the PC experience way beyond MS/Vista! so, HP/PC may look like a duck, but does it quack like a duck? we shall soon see when it arrives at the store.

[nikondavid]

Desktops are not dead PeterC_150. Now there is a shift in the consumer market for small miniature computers but nevertheless many people still rely on a solid desktop PC. Especially graphics artists, developers, and researchers. All of whom most likely used a desktop to design and code the website your typing on.

Back to the post, HP has really stepped up their game recently. I bought a Quad Core packaged HP desktop like 2 weeks ago for my cousin and "hackintoshed" it to run mac osx. I have to say, it was a very solid computer both on the windows and mac side.

[More Beer]

PC and VISTA make for a bad experience. Add a HP PC and the lame VISTA OS and you have the perfect storm. I have cleansed my household of all non-Apple computers and I haven't had to spend one minute on hold waiting for a technical support specialist. Now that is empowering. Three words...buy a MAC.

[nutjob]

With IBM broken up and sold, HP is the only full throttle computer company left. You can get any kind of computer hardware that is generally competitive with the best. Over the past three years, I have found myself recommending HP servers, routers, and laptops more and more.

[spacebatman]

the new subnotebooks introduced by market's leaders like HP and Dell make much more urgent for Apple to offer its own EEE-like MacBook Air that could be something like this: http://www.gaetanomarano.it/articles/036appleee.html