Innovators vs Copiers: HP vs Dell

eaglemoon writes ""The days of engineering-led technology companies are coming to an end," Mr. Dell declared. The NY Times outlines a modern version of a classic innovation theory. Who gets to win in the marketplace - the innovators who invest in R&D like crazy or those that just take cost out of standard products? The current fight between Dell and HP over the printer business is a great natural experiment in verifying this theory." The article does a good job of stating what the real contest is - it's the different theories of corporate structure that's being tested.

Comments

If HP is such an inovator of technology

[spidergoat2]

Why haven't they made an OS to compete with Microsoft. Oh, yeah, they're building PC's to someone elses standard.....and there was that UNIX thing......

Re:HP? An innovator?

[harrkev]

Not just marketing, but who sets the prices???

From the atricle (about printing):

The business is big and immensely profitable: it accounted for about 30 percent of Hewlett-Packard's sales last year, but 80 percent of its earnings.

Either everything else HP did sucked (possible), or consumers are being gouged (more likely). I would be willing to bet that at least HALF of HP's total profits are from ink!

I like companies that innovate, but I hope that Dell puts the pressure on HP to lower ink prices. But this is not likely, since Dell is probably riding the same CMY&K-colored cash cow. They make noise about lowering ink costs, but I will believe it when I see it.