The company is launching the products in Berlin because more than half of its $40 billion in annual Personal Systems Group sales are overseas, says John Cook, vice president of consumer marketing at HP.
Cook says the line-up pays attention to design, meaningful innovation, and relentless execution. The attention to the details of design is there, based on my own tour of HP's line-up. It shows HP get a little something out of its $3.5 billion in annual R&D spending.
Among the ways HP will tout its new gear is through a new reality TV show with MTV, dubbed "Engine Room," that will tout the art of digital content creation among students in a New York loft. (I hope it's going to be more exciting than watching somebody use PhotoShop).
One of the new computers is a new worldwide version of the TouchSmart All-in-One IQ500 computer, which has a 22-inch touch screen and has a lot of touch-based applications aimed at making it easy for consumers to initiate tasks such as messages, music playback, or shooting videos with the computer's built-in webcam. The new $1,299 version is a lot cheaper than last year's $1,800 version. This one will be available in 13 different countries; that tells you that last year's U.S. model was successful enough to justify further investment. It will be available in July.
The laptops feature QuickLook 2 for quickly booting to a virtual compartment within seconds. As Windows boots in the background, you can browse the web, watch a movie or play music. That way, you don't have to wait minutes for Vista to boot.
All of this new stuff is coming out at a time when consumers may not be spending much. But Cook hopes that HP will benefit, since consumers will want to get good value for their money during tough times.