In Their Fight Against Apple Why Couldn't HP Hire An SEO?
HP recently announced the launch of three new products shipping in spring. The Pre3, and the Veer are smartphones (the latter probably the smallest smartphone ever) and the TouchPad is what HP is hoping will prove to be an iPad-killer.
The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in development, tying these products in a new operating system called webOS which frees it from its long-term dependency on Microsoft and its Windows operating system and allows it, for the first time, to create a business model which in its breadth and depth makes Apple’s look amateurish. On paper, provided it can convince consumers to buy into it, it is onto a winner.
The strategy marks a shift away from its long dependency on Microsoft and a move towards creating its own eco-system of products which would lock customers in. Marked by a sizable budget and the kind of ‘new thinking’ which one a new board of directors can provide the move is one bears all the hallmarks of a corporate strategy being put in action: careful orchestration of products, a new environment in which these products work seamlessly with each other, much-desired new features in the products themselves, competitive pricing models and the big-name guarantee which comes with any new product launch by an established global player.
All of this spells big brains and deep pockets so nothing can really go wrong. Right? Well, yes, maybe. In their attention to detail HP missed something any newbie website owner would have covered and that was to hire a search engine optimizer (SEO) to consult for their big product launch.
With the marketing and development budgets that HP plays with the fee of an SEO is truly insignificant which makes it all the more puzzling to understand why they didn’t hire one in the first place. Had they done so, of course, they would have been told, straightaway that the name of their flagship product, the HP tablet called TouchPad, was a big no-no.
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