Confusion causes HP to hemorrhage customers

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | September 5, 2011, 3:32am PDT

Summary: Where’s HP going? Customers aren’t sure, and as a result aren’t happy to spend money.

Lack of clarity over HP’s plans are causing companies wanting to invest in new hardware to look elsewhere, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal [subscription required].

HP’s announced some big changes recently - webOS devices are out and it wants to spin off the PC business - and this is making customers looking to spend dollars nervous.

“It appears that they’re lost right now.”One example is engineering company Fluor, a firm which spends about $25 million a year on IT. “I’ve put that all on hold and won’t buy from HP,” said Fluor chief information officer Ray Barnard. “It appears that they’re lost right now.”

Another concerned customer is Frank Cervone, a vice chancellor for information services at Purdue University, who seems confused about where HP’s future plans are. ”This appears to just come out of the blue without a really good explanation, it makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where it is going.”

HP needs to do something to address these concerns, and do it fast.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/confusion-causes-hp-to-hemorrhage-customers/14578?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE