14 DAY TRIAL // At one point in the past, HP, Dell, Microsoft and Intel were very close, collaborating while maintaining a friendly rivalry, at least on the surface. But this might not last for long.
In fact, those times may already be gone, now that HP has changed its official stance.
We and the rest of the world might be overreacting a bit, but HP's Chief Executive Meg Whitman said, the other day, that Microsoft and Intel were “outright competitors.”
It has a lot to do with Microsoft beginning to make its own hardware devices, like Surface tablets. Microsoft's purchase of Nokia only drove the stake further.
So HP is responding by trying to reduce its dependence on Windows. It has been quite active on the ARM-Android tablet front, and has been promoting Chromebooks too.
And since Microsoft and Dell are growing close, Dell is about to make the list of competitors too.