标签: HP

The oscilloscope on the shelf over my bench bears an HP logo. The one below it is labelled "Agilent Technologies". My next one may be made by Keysight Technologies. In 1939 Bill and Dave, working in their iconic garage, built their HP200A audio oscillator , birthing one of the greatest test equipment companies ever. Market leaders HP and Tektronix battled each other for decades; we, the engineers using their products, were the beneficiaries. The place where I worked in the 70s was a Tek shop, when it came to scopes. Much of our other test equipment came from HP. I remember the stacks of grey-paneled HP power supplies, their analogue meters a long cry from even inexpensive supplies available today, but they were rock-solid and we never had one fail. Years of working with Tektronix high-end scopes ( like the, for the time, fabulous 7000 series ) biased me against HP's offerings, and even today I feel their 70-eras stuff lacked the snazzy looks and performance of their rivals. Competition is a wonderful thing, and HP did catch up. Their 54645D might have been the first-ever mixed-signal scope ( one that includes a logic analyser ). It appeared around 1998, and mine is still going strong. It is analogue, uses a CRT ( remember those? ) and has none of the really useful features we expect on more modern gear. In 1999, for reasons I have never understood, HP spun out their instrumentation division into Agilent Technologies. I thought it was HP's core business, one where they were a true market leader. Now HP makes PCs ( yawn ), and ink cartridges, plus the printers needed to consume that over-priced ink. Their fortunes have been bumpy, ill-served by some chiefs. For years the employees I know there have been afraid for their jobs; in December they announced another round of layoffs. 34,000 people will lose their jobs in 2014. Figure 1. HP's fortunes ( from Wikipedia ) My main PC is an HP, though I have no loyalty to the brand. The latest machine here is from Dell, mostly because that was available at Best Buy and my wife's computer died. We have HP and Brother printers. Buying this stuff is like purchasing petrol; there's not a lot of differentiation between competing products. Agilent's story is more subdued, perhaps mirroring the glamorless nature of electronic test equipment. At least to Wall Street. Few investors understand the difference between a spectrum analyser and an oscilloscope. Their stock price doesn't show the mad booms and busts of consumer electronics.   Figure 2. Agilent's stock price ( from finance.yahoo.com ) While HP started shedding employees and market value, Agilent prospered. Their products ( at least for test equipment; I know little about their science and medical business ) continued to improve. My Agilent MSO-X 3054A offers incredible performance, features, and, yes, sexy looks. To a geek, at least. A lot of my friends are old-timers who still use their ancient analogue gear, and their eyes fairly bug out when I demo the features this puppy has. ( Once, when a pal was having I2C comm troubles, we met at a bar with the scope and troubleshot his board. You can imagine the reaction of the non-techies swilling their beers. ) HP may wither, but the spirit of Bill and Dave lives on in Agilent. Now Agilent is spinning off their $2.9B test equipment into a new company called Keysight Technologies. Is this a good move or not? I don't know, but will have to, once again, get used to the new name. Keysight will still offer the same products, and will in general have the same people, so we engineers will remain well-served. We'll see a new logo, but will have the same cool features and quality under the hood of the equipment we buy from them. I have evaluated some of Tektronix's recent gear, and found them impressive. Their mixed-domain scope is incredible. They even offer sub-$1k scopes, which look, from the data sheets, to be a good choice for the cost-constrained who don't need a lot of bandwidth. LeCroy and Rhode Schwarz, too, offer some products that most of us would be happy to use. For the severely price conscious, products from Rigol and other Chinese vendors give some decent performance. This is a good time to be in the market for test equipment as features have never been so broad, and price points never so diverse. Given the company's historic strong operating margins and great product line I'm sure Agilent Keysight will prosper. The spinoff is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year; it'll be interesting to see which logo graces the equipment they demo at EELive. There's more info about the changes at this web page on the Agilent web site. What's your take? Are you loyal to a particular brand of test equipment?  

如果说 Windows 8 是推动 PC 销售关键要素的话，那么在今年的第一季度，它并没有起到促进 PC 业绩反弹的效果。根据 IDC 最新的统计报告，2013 年第一季度全球个人计算机出货量仅为 7,630 万台，同比下降 13.9%，是 IDC 从 1994 年开始统计这种资料以来的最大跌幅。虽然导致这样销售表现的具体因素还不是太清楚，但是 IDC 指出，消费者不熟悉 Windows 8 接口、移动设备出货量的持续攀升、上笔电逐渐退出历史舞台都导致了 PC 业绩不佳。虽然市场上有高价的触控屏 PC 及平板计算机助阵，PC 巨头 Dell 及 HP 也希望通过重组重获市场竞争力，但目前看来对整个 PC 销售推动不大。 从全球 PC 大厂出货量来看，HP 以 15.7% 的市场份额列第一，不过比起去年同期出货量下降了 23.7%。接下去的 Lenovo 和去年同期的市场份额比攀升了 2.1%，出货量却没见增长。Dell 的市场份额也变化不大，不过出货量下降了 10.9%。剩下的 Acer 和 ASUS 市场份额虽然仅下降了 2% 和 0.4%，但是出货量方面，Acer 跌去了 31.3%，ASUS 也下降了 19.2%。跳转还可以看到北美地区的出货情况，HP、Dell、Apple 分列头三名。

    如果说 Windows 8 是推动 PC 销售关键要素的话，那么在今年的第一季度，它并没有起到促进 PC 业绩反弹的效果。根据 IDC 最新的统计报告，2013 年第一季度全球个人计算机出货量仅为 7,630 万台，同比下降 13.9%，是 IDC 从 1994 年开始统计这种资料以来的最大跌幅。虽然导致这样销售表现的具体因素还不是太清楚，但是 IDC 指出，消费者不熟悉 Windows 8 接口、移动设备出货量的持续攀升、上笔电逐渐退出历史舞台都导致了 PC 业绩不佳。虽然市场上有高价的触控屏 PC 及平板计算机助阵，PC 巨头 Dell 及 HP 也希望通过重组重获市场竞争力，但目前看来对整个 PC 销售推动不大。     从全球 PC 大厂出货量来看，HP 以 15.7% 的市场份额列第一，不过比起去年同期出货量下降了 23.7%。接下去的 Lenovo 和去年同期的市场份额比攀升了 2.1%，出货量却没见增长。Dell 的市场份额也变化不大，不过出货量下降了 10.9%。剩下的 Acer 和 ASUS 市场份额虽然仅下降了 2% 和 0.4%，但是出货量方面，Acer 跌去了 31.3%，ASUS 也下降了 19.2%。跳转还可以看到北美地区的出货情况，HP、Dell、Apple 分列头三名。

In its announcement that it would take a write down of $8 billion in the third quarter for goodwill impairment of its enterprise services business, Hewlett-Packard Co. acknowledged what many in high-tech already suspected: HP grossly overpaid when it shelled out $13.9 billion to acquire EDS Corp. in 2008. According to the Wall Street Journal , the charge is expected to be one of the largest ever for a U.S. technology company. HP is now expecting to report a GAAP net loss of $9 billion, the largest in the company's history. Whoops. It's the latest in a serious of recent blunders for what many consider to be the original Silicon Valley company. The once proud and forward-thinking pioneer has in recent years been plagued by scandals and bad decisions, including the 2006 "pre-texting" journalist spying scandal, former CEO Mark Hurd's 2010 resignation following claims of sexual harassment by a contract employee and the $1.2 acquisition of Palm Inc. that same year. Some would add other items to the list. Despite the fact that HP remains the No. 1 seller of PCs worldwide, many believe that its 2002 acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. was a blunder. (Certainly, the company's big announcement last year that it would look to spin off its PC business—which was subsequently reversed—would not be labeled a shining moment.) Then there was the TouchPad, the media tablet that HP brought to market last year with much fanfare, only to pull it all together seven weeks later. Regardless of what you would and wouldn't put on the blunder list, it's clear that the EDS acquisition can now be considered another black eye for the once proud Silicon Valley stalwart. In the forums and elsewhere, HP is often raked over the coals by engineers as an example of technology giant that traded its founders' ideals and belief in innovation for a short-sighted focus on quarterly earnings and keeping Wall Street happy. But the truth is that HP is hardly alone in that. The computer industry has been undergoing a breathtaking consolidation race which has altered the fortunes of many Silicon Valley companies. It has driven Cisco to get into servers and Oracle to buy Sun. The whole industry has gone from salad days to razor-thin margins very quickly, and HP is perhaps the biggest example of good sense—and, sometimes, good values—getting lost in the rush. HP President and CEO Meg Whitman—who took the helm just over a year ago after the board of directors dumped former CEO Leo Apotheker—remains relatively early in her term (though she has been at the helm nearly as long as Apotheker). Clearly, she wants to get painful moves out of the way to pave the way for better days—hence layoff of 27,000 workers in May and the massive third quarter write down. She has set low expectations for HP's growth in the near term and been clear that a full-scale turnaround will take years. HP is far from the garage-based startup of its roots. The company is a massive multinational corporation that did $127 billion in sales last year. In searching for new avenues of growth, HP has proved more than willing to reach for its wallet. But HP's recent track record in this regard is poor. The company seems to buy the wrong companies at the wrong times—and for too much money. Large-scale layoffs in recent years to bolster the bottom line—including the May jobs cuts—have drawn the ire of engineers, hammering home the point that big money acquisition gaffes have real-world consequences. During HP's string of missteps, many have harkened back to the idealistic image of the company's founders, William Hewlett and David Packard, in an attempt to make the point that HP has somehow strayed from the values and ideals at the core of its beginnings. What would Bill and Dave say? It's an interesting question from a nostalgic point of view, but it's mostly irrelevant. Sadly, Bill and Dave are no longer with us, and both the HP that they knew and the world it operated in are gone. The more important questions are forward looking. What is the future of HP? Are expensive and ill-fated acquisitions followed by mass layoffs the new HP way? Or will Silicon Valley's original company find its footing to create a future that is worthy of its past?  

In Hewlett-Packard Co.'s announcement that it would take a write down of $8 billion in the third quarter for goodwill impairment of its enterprise services business, the company acknowledged what many in high-tech already suspected: HP grossly overpaid when it shelled out $13.9 billion to acquire EDS Corp. in 2008. According to the Wall Street Journal , the charge is expected to be one of the largest ever for a U.S. technology company. HP is now expecting to report a GAAP net loss of $9 billion, the largest in the company's history. Whoops. It's the latest in a serious of recent blunders for what many consider to be the original Silicon Valley company. The once proud and forward-thinking pioneer has in recent years been plagued by scandals and bad decisions, including the 2006 "pre-texting" journalist spying scandal, former CEO Mark Hurd's 2010 resignation following claims of sexual harassment by a contract employee and the $1.2 acquisition of Palm Inc. that same year. Some would add other items to the list. Despite the fact that HP remains the No. 1 seller of PCs worldwide, many believe that its 2002 acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. was a blunder. (Certainly, the company's big announcement last year that it would look to spin off its PC business—which was subsequently reversed—would not be labeled a shining moment.) Then there was the TouchPad, the media tablet that HP brought to market last year with much fanfare, only to pull it all together seven weeks later. Regardless of what you would and wouldn't put on the blunder list, it's clear that the EDS acquisition can now be considered another black eye for the once proud Silicon Valley stalwart. In the forums and elsewhere, HP is often raked over the coals by engineers as an example of technology giant that traded its founders' ideals and belief in innovation for a short-sighted focus on quarterly earnings and keeping Wall Street happy. But the truth is that HP is hardly alone in that. The computer industry has been undergoing a breathtaking consolidation race which has altered the fortunes of many Silicon Valley companies. It has driven Cisco to get into servers and Oracle to buy Sun. The whole industry has gone from salad days to razor-thin margins very quickly, and HP is perhaps the biggest example of good sense—and, sometimes, good values—getting lost in the rush. HP President and CEO Meg Whitman—who took the helm just over a year ago after the board of directors dumped former CEO Leo Apotheker—remains relatively early in her term (though she has been at the helm nearly as long as Apotheker). Clearly, she wants to get painful moves out of the way to pave the way for better days—hence layoff of 27,000 workers in May and the massive third quarter write down. She has set low expectations for HP's growth in the near term and been clear that a full-scale turnaround will take years. HP is far from the garage-based startup of its roots. The company is a massive multinational corporation that did $127 billion in sales last year. In searching for new avenues of growth, HP has proved more than willing to reach for its wallet. But HP's recent track record in this regard is poor. The company seems to buy the wrong companies at the wrong times—and for too much money. Large-scale layoffs in recent years to bolster the bottom line—including the May jobs cuts—have drawn the ire of engineers, hammering home the point that big money acquisition gaffes have real-world consequences. During HP's string of missteps, many have harkened back to the idealistic image of the company's founders, William Hewlett and David Packard, in an attempt to make the point that HP has somehow strayed from the values and ideals at the core of its beginnings. What would Bill and Dave say? It's an interesting question from a nostalgic point of view, but it's mostly irrelevant. Sadly, Bill and Dave are no longer with us, and both the HP that they knew and the world it operated in are gone. The more important questions are forward looking. What is the future of HP? Are expensive and ill-fated acquisitions followed by mass layoffs the new HP way? Or will Silicon Valley's original company find its footing to create a future that is worthy of its past?