I heartily agree with both you and Ken, Mike. I worked for HP for 7 years prior to where I am now. I was at the old Apollo Computer manufacturing facility in New Hampshire HP got when they bought Apollo in '89. I saw some great products come through there but slowly saw the whole Workstation division go down the tubes as all of the brilliant minds that put Apollo on the map left the company due to the decsions made by vice presidents in California. Sun was always the manufacturer to beat but, in my opnion, HP kept shooting themselves in the foot by being too expensive and often too proprietary. Now they are scheduled to drop their excellent PA risc line of processors in favor of the Itanium chip they helped develop with Intel. We'll see how that pans out for them I guess but they certainly have not gained and held any ground against Sun over the past 12 years with workstations from what I see.
When the T&M division was still part of the company, it seemed to help keep the cash flow going when the computer biz would have its roller- coaster type dips even though it was a smaller portion of the revenues. The integration of the workstations with the test equipment was very tight with few bugs. Now HP is just another computer commodity company it seems. No wonder my stock is at 10% of the value it was in the 90s. A sorry state of affairs it seems.... Kurt Mike Cantwell wrote: Ken, That was impeccably said !!! and I'd like to add: Agilent is not your Dad's HP. From: Ken Javor [ mailto:ken.ja...@emccompliance.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 11:35 AM To: Richard A. Schumacher; mtay...@hach.com Cc: emcp...@aol.com; emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: Re: Agilent 6842A I used to support technical sales for a Brit company, Wayne Kerr, in the USA. They sold Farnell EMC instrumentation here in the '90s. I had never done sales work before, and it was quite interesting. One thing I learned was that if you were in this business and you were NOT HP, then you had the following hurdle to overcome, as a sales person. Your engineer customer's point-of-view was that if a piece of non-HP equipment went bad, it was his fault, for not buying HP. If a piece of HP equipment went bad, it was HP's fault. That is a TREMENDOUS sales advantage, which HP/Agilent casually tossed aside. I still buy old HP test equipment when I can find it and when the price is right. But my attitude towards new HP equipment is 180 out from what it was. The burden of proof is on Agilent to sell me on their quality. My initial assumption is that Agilent equipment will be more expensive and not as good as the competition. I have an HP case in point. Over the years (since the early '70s) I have owned several HP calculators. HP went to a lot of trouble to make those early calculators have the look, feel, and quality of good equipment. In particular, the buttons had tactile feedback lacking in the competition's (Texas Instruments). Those calculators were my intro to HP when I started my career in the latter '70s. I learned a lot about my craft in the '70s and '80s by attending HP sales/technical seminars. HP was the gold standard in test equipment. About a year ago I bought a scientific calculator directly from HP on the internet for about $70. Within a month the keyboard had gone bad. I sent them a message about it, and never heard back. I know there was a fight between the heirs of Hewlett and Packard and the range-of-the-moment bean counter types who eventually took over. I also know that Messrs. H&P had to come back from retirement to straighten out the company once before. I would tell the heirs to not be disheartened by what has happened. I expect they see it as a magnificent monument being defaced. But a company is not a monument to the dead. It is a living entity whose actions reflect not the will of the dead founders but the present management. I would say that what has happened to HP is a testament to the accomplishment of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Those who followed them were simply NOT able to fill their shoes. From: "Richard A. Schumacher" <mailto:schum...@rsn.hp.com> <schum...@rsn.hp.com> To: mtay...@hach.com Cc: emcp...@aol.com, emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: RE: Agilent 6842A List-Post: emc-pstc@listserv.ieee.org List-Post: emc-pstc@listserv.ieee.org List-Post: emc-pstc@listserv.ieee.org List-Post: emc-pstc@listserv.ieee.org Date: Wed, Feb 5, 2003, 10:05 AM To correct any possible mis-understandings: Agilent was spun off from HP and has been a completely separate and independent company for some years now. Carly Fiorina has no role in the management or operations of Agilent. HP does not make, sell or service test equipment. If you have any problem or issue with Agilent products or services, call Agilent, not HP. If your test equipment has an "HP" label on it, Agilent (not HP) may be able to help you with it. regards, Richard Schumacher The above are my own knowledge and opinions. I am not an official speaker for Hewlett Packard. If you think Carley and the rest of HP / Agilent upper management are really more concerned about your thoughts - over short term profits, there are several of us that would like to interest you in some swamp land in Florida and a bridge in New Jersey. This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. 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Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc -- Kurt M. Marden Environmental Simulation Manager Curtis-Straus LLC kmar...@curtis-straus.com Laboratory for EMC,Safety Environmental Simulation Lab NEBS,SEMI-S2 and Telecom 168 Ayer Rd. 527 Great Road Littleton, MA 01460 Littleton, MA 01460 voice (978) 486-8880 http://www.curtis-straus.com fax (978) 486-0806
