HP's Melodeo Acquisition: Not a Consumer Play, Just Part of Its Mobile-Services Expansion
After the purchase of Palm, HP (HPQ) seemed on track to continue its long focus on corporate markets. The announcement that HP would buy Melodeo, which makes mobile music delivery systems for wireless operators, doesn't change a thing. The company is still determined to become a player in mobile infrastructure.
It's easy to make the mistake -- I did on catching the first headline -- that HP wanted to deliver services to consumers. However, look at the Melodeo site and you see it partners with mobile sector companies, licensing its capabilities to them. It might seem like a departure for HP, but it's not when you look at the purchase of Palm to integrate the webOS operating system into devices of all kinds, including printers.
HP's strategy reminds me of the one IBM (IBM) plans for this space:
IBM's strategy is to let partners create the end user software and electronics. It just wants to make money from being in the middle of everything.Given the recent acquisitions, I think HP wants the same thing. The strategic advantage goes to companies that find ways to provide infrastructure services that are both useful and outside what traditional players offer.
HP's strategy seems focused on creating a supra-infrastructure -- something that exists at the extremes of what is considered the normal mobile infrastructure. Look at it that way, and it makes sense:
- devices of all sorts running the Palm mobile operating system, webOS
- "smart" printers that can accept print jobs without the direction of an intervening computer
- music (and, presumably, other e-media) distribution services for mobile
Related:
- HP Partners with Yahoo To Spam Printer Users to Death
- HP Desperately Hopes the Web Will Print Money -- and the Key Word is "Desperate"
- HP Will Use Palm To Make a Killer Enterprise Infrastructure Play
- HP Bought Palm to Lure Corporate Mobile Users, Not Consumers
- IBM's Mobile Strategy: Being the Middleman