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The world's top computer maker Hewlett Packard is
narrowing its research focus to Internet opportunities and its
growing role as a software company.
HP's 600 researchers in China,
Japan, Israel, Russia, India, Britain and the United States will go
from working on about 150 small projects to concentrating on two
dozen or so.
"This is a big deal to
us," HP chief executive Mark Hurd said at a Thursday press
conference at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
"What we are doing is
placing fewer, bigger bets."
Priority areas for innovation
include Earth-friendly computing; handling digitized information;
and providing online services tailored to individuals.
"The digital world is
converging with the physical world," said HP chief technology
and strategy officer Shane Robison.
"The era of device-centric
computing is over. The services you care about will come to you
anywhere on any device. The content will sit in the cloud and
devices are fungible."
Cloud computing is a reference to
people relying on data bases or applications hosted on computers
kept elsewhere and accessed via the Internet.
Today's Internet users have the
tools needed to produce almost anything they want at lower costs
than ever, according to Robison.
"I think Fortune 100
companies are going to research, develop and launch major products
using cloud-based services," Robison said. "It's a big
breakthrough, especially in terms of cost."
"Crowd sourcing" is
mainstream, with firms tapping into online communities for feedback
regarding everything from logo designs to software applications.
"We are embarking on the
next wave of talent aggregation," Robison said.
HP Labs' mission is to come up
with innovations that can quickly be turned into products that
capitalize on today's Internet trends.
"We know where we are going
and we think if we target that research we can not only have fun, we
can help the company's bottom line," Robison said.
"This is about efficiency
and time to market. Our whole goal is to move at an Internet
speed."
HP researchers have been divided
into 23 "small dynamic teams" coaxed to think like
entrepreneurs.
"We are going to refocus our
effort in 20 to 30 big bets in high-impact areas," HP Labs
director Prith Banerjee said at the press conference.
"We hope to solve the most
challenging problems facing our customers in the next decade, and
drive HP growth."
HP Labs is intensifying its
relationships with universities, partners and venture capitalists,
and launched an online HP IdeaLab where outside researchers and
developers can weigh in on work in progress.
"This is a total Team HP
effort, not just an HP Labs effort," Hurd said. "There are
a lot of mini transformations going on in HP as the whole company
tries to transform."
HP has been expanding from a
hardware company known for computers, printers and other devices to
a seller of software and services provided via the Internet, said
Robison.
Aided by a series of
acquisitions, HP has become the world's sixth largest software
company.
"The research is aligned
with where we want to take this company" Robison said.
"This is definitely not a cost-cutting exercise."
HP research staffing and budget
are not being trimmed, according to Banerjee.
The realignment of research
priorities is due in part to the Internet becoming a
"legitimate platform" for hosted applications and
services, according to Robison.
"The end users are driving
what happens," Robison said.
-- AFP
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