HP Trials Built-To-Order PCs to Reduce Risk
119856
U.S. computer company Hewlett-Packard  said on Wednesday it was expanding a built-to-order system for  personal computers and other high volume computer products,  similar to rival Dell.
713544
The world&#39;s top PC vendor, Hewlett-Packard, beat competitors Dell, Lenovo, and Apple to provide the best online customer support, according to a survey released on Tuesday by The Customer Respect Group.HP was also rated as providing the best online customer service among a sample of 18 technology companies surveyed, ahead of Intuit, Xerox, Microsoft, and Lexmark, according to the survey, which rated online support for the first quarter of 2008.Using metrics, including Web site usability, content accessibility, and responsiveness to queries, the survey independently measured a customer&#39;s interaction with a technology company via the Internet, the company said.Dell lagged in 12th place behind hardware vendors HP, Lenovo, Apple, and Gateway, according to the survey. Dell has a good community site linked from the home page, but the support pages are difficult to locate, said Terry Golesworthy, president of The Customer Respect Group.&quot;I think the story with Dell is that they have excellent materials and content, but it is not always as usable by the more naive users,&quot; Golesworthy said. Dell needs to mature support to cater to new users without neglecting the self-service experts, Golesworthy said.Apple&#39;s product offerings are fairly simple compared to Dell&#39;s, and so is its online support, Golesworthy said. Apple provides no chat or e-mail support options and encourages users to contact Apple through stores and by telephone to resolve issues.Apple&#39;s message may be about being simple, but a major glitch could become a big problem as self-help provided by Apple is minimal, Golesworthy said. Apple has plenty of technical articles on its Web site, which could be hard to locate at critical times.While some issues linger, vendors are finding better use of technologies&#160;such as&#160;RSS, online chat, e-mail, forums, and self-support Web content to support novice and expert PC users, the survey said.Technical customers are generally well serviced on location, so companies are looking to provide more basic information to support novice PC users, Golesworthy said. The documentation on some Web sites is being aligned for novice users to first identify a problem, then download the relevant drivers and programs to solve problems.Companies are also adopting more interactive and real-time techniques to provide customer support, the survey said. Online chat is challenging e-mail as a support option, with more than 50 percent of companies surveyed including online chat, an improvement from 30 percent six months ago.Online chat provides quicker response, cuts down on customer support costs, and eliminates user concerns about speaking to support agents with foreign accents, Golesworthy said.Some Web sites had data-intensive home pages that took time to load, but it could become commonplace as companies try to provide better and more interactive support to users, the survey said.Two upcoming technologies -- remote support and intelligent monitoring -- could help improve customer support provided by vendors, Golesworthy said. With remote access, technicians will assume control of a machine from a remote location to fix a problem. Instead of wading through pages of content to diagnose an issue, intelligent monitoring will provide a clearer choice for users to diagnose and resolve issues.Sun was rated as having the simplest Web site, followed by Xerox, Microsoft, and Apple. Intuit was rated as being most responsive to customers&#39; problems, followed by Microsoft, Symantec, and HP.
215022
Customers who have purchased an HP Pavilion or Digital Entertainment Center PC, or a Compaq Pavilion PC - all desktop models only - on or after October 26, with Windows XP pre-installed, will be eligible for upgrade kits for corresponding editions of Windows Vista next month, HP announced this morning
59127
(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard (HP) is offering a "virtual house call" service to users who have trouble getting their PCs to work HP Instant Care, announced Monday, provides personalized service over the Internet. Customers can sit at their home PCs while remote workers defragment a hard drive or speed up booting time by deleting extra files in the Start Up menu. HP's move follows remote IT services offered to business customers by Dell Inc. and Intel Corp. As PC prices continue to fall, some vendors are using improved customer service to differentiate their products in a crowded marketplace. Dell has been expanding its customer service in an effort to turn around poor earnings results. In June, the company launched "DellConnect", an expansion of its TechConnect service allowing Dell service agents to troubleshoot customers' PCs using a broadband Internet link instead of a personal visit. Dell claims the approach will save time and money compared to the cost of dispatching technicians. Likewise, remote monitoring is one of the cornerstones of Intel's vPro technology bundle for business desktops, launched in September. One ingredient of the bundle, Intel's Active Management Technology, allows IT managers to make fewer time-consuming "desk-side" visits by booting and repairing PCs remotely. HP, Gateway Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. have adopted the vPro platform in their business desktops. Dell offers a similar package in the OptiPlex 745 PC. HP Instant Care is free for HP customers whose computers are still under warranty and have purchased either PC Tune-up for $99 or SmartFriend for $59.99. Â
569600
HP is giving away a lot of value related to open source adoption.  Here's why this is a good strategy.
691903
Hewlett-Packard Co  on  Wednesday launched a line of powerful new computers aimed  squarely at gamers, in the company&#39;s latest step to court a  small-but-influential audience.
462492
Dell rarely misses an opportunity to remind chief rival Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) which outfit is king of low-cost PCs. On Dec. 6, one day before HP&#39;s semiannual meeting with analysts and investors, Dell (DELL
306766
SAN FRANCISCO - Hewlett-Packard Co. yesterday launched a line of powerful computers aimed squarely at gamers, in the company's latest step to court a small-but-influential audience.
611827
The computer maker's retail stores are pretty easygoing about customers playing with the display machines. But when it comes to running an in-store hardware test lab, the company draws the line. By Leander Kahney.
118254
Every day, consumers plunk down millions of dollars for cell phones, computers and high-end electronics that are supposed to make their lives better. And every night, they lie awake worrying that their new PCs or plasma TVs will spontaneously combust the day their warranty expires.
544037
By Jordan Robertson Associated Press  SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co.
639964
HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) today announced the industry's first easy-to-use storage systems that drive down cost and complexity for small and medium businesses (SMBs) grappling with the exponential growth of data.
633065
HP, others talk about their new method of predicting markets, profits.
512535
EXTENDING the boundaries of workstation computing, HP has introduced a low-cost workstation that brings unprecedented performance to the entrylevel market.
351889
By MAY WONG    SAN JOSE, Calif.  -- Personal computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co...
482455
HP looks to utility, aggregation and legacies Following on from the formal launch earlier this month of the latest version of its Integrity Servers equipped with dual-core Montecito processors, HP put on a users' bash in London to drum up business from both existing and new customers.â¦
488636
Consumer desktop and notebook PCs will continue to ship with a trial version of Norton Internet Security suite.