After-HP: Dell Or Apple ?

If Hewlett-Packard exits the PC business as planned, the U.S. is down to two major laptop makers, Dell and Apple. And the two couldn't be more different.

Apple: Apple is more about the iPhone and iPad these days and less about the Mac. And the core of its Mac lineup now is arguably the MacBook Air, which doesn't look or act like a traditional laptop.

The Air is getting smaller (11.6 inches), lighter (2.3 pounds)--and, matched with OS X Lion, offers an iPad-like interface. The iPad, on the other hand, will evolve into a more upscale platform, replete with superhigh-resolution screens and quad-core processors. In short, Apple is serious about accelerating its transition to a Post-PC world. It's not just a Steve Jobs catchphrase.

Dell: Dell is a very different creature. It still markets a lot of low-end traditional laptops--just browse its Web site. Though Brian Gladden, Dell's chief financial officer, said during the company's recent earnings call that "we're...moving our product portfolio to higher value products while exiting lower margin products in retail business." That's been said before.

Whatever Dell does, however, consumers and businesses will continue to buy a lot of its PCs. The problem is, Dell may face the same existential quandary as HP if profit margins shrink too much. Apple is commanding healthy operating margins (around 30 percent), while Dell falls into the HP camp (usually around 7 percent).

So, who wins? That's up to the consumer, of course. Dell shipped about 10.6 million PCs worldwide in the second quarter. By traditional calculations, Apple shipped a fraction of that. But throw the iPad into the mix, and everything changes. DisplaySearch's figures for mobile shipments show that Apple wins handily, at about 13.5 million, in the second quarter.

That said, U.S. government accounts and Fortune 500 companies will need a traditional Wintel PC maker for the foreseeable future. So, Dell may benefit from HP's demise. Just think of all of those nervous Fortune 500 accounts wedded to HP and its business laptops.

So, one scenario is that Dell takes up HP's slack and Apple carves out more market share with the iPad. Maybe it's a win-win.

$99 HP TouchPad Selling Out During Fire Sale

HP TouchPads are being snapped up quickly thanks to fire sale prices, and they may be hard to find.

Just two days after announcing it will discontinue operations for WebOS devices, HP has dropped the price of its TouchPad to a bargain basement $99 for the Wi-Fi only 16GB device and $149 for the 32GB version.

First on sale in Canada but now sold out at Best Buy Canada and Future Shop, the tablet is getting snatched up at lightning speed and is increasingly difficult to find. BestBuy.com in the United States no longer lists the TouchPad. A call to a local store drew a response from an operator that they’re sending them all back to HP.

Slickdeals.com has posted a long list of sites that have sold out of the tablet and some people are saying that even after purchasing one online their orders are being cancelled.

Wal-Mart is selling them in its stores at the liquidation prices but they’re running out of stock quickly. Your best bet -- if you hurry -- is to call your local Wal-mart to see if they still have any.