RSSProfile: HP's Blackbird 002 and the Ideal of the PC
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published September 21, 2007, 9:00 AM
(continued from previous page)
For example, Michael Dell said to me in a conversation that he felt that Apple spent as much on R&D as Dell does, therefore Dell was more profitable. Those were his words. And also, [former CEO] Kevin Rollins at one point said that the iPod was nothing more than a fad. And now he's out of a job. So you kind of wonder what they were thinking. They were more interested in going top-line revenues, and we were interested in doing a story about innovation.
So when I realized that we weren't going to align in early January, I approached [HP CEO] Mark Hurd and said, "Mark, you guys have got to move quicker, because there is some interesting things happening in the industry, I think we could do some amazing things together." Basically it was like two e-mails from Mark Hurd, and he moved a mountain immediately, and things started happening at HP.
In the meantime, Dell essentially had two choices: They could acquire us or they could acquire Alienware, and I was certain they were going to acquire Alienware at that point. And so I told HP that I think that this is going to happen, I wrote about it in my blog before it happened assuming it was going to happen, and lo and behold, I was correct.
So I think I understood going into this business arrangement, Dell's strategy - which was, there was no strategy in the space. They didn't quite get it the way that we got it, right? We saw them [Alienware] get acquired, and we saw the announcement and how they said they were going to remain a separate company, and they're going to compete against each other - which they openly stated, which I found absolutely ridiculous. And I even met a guy from Dell at an Intel show, he met me and said, "Oh, you know, it's nice to meet you...Now that this deal is done, we're running two separate companies," and he tried to play it off as..."Who wins in that case?" And I had no idea what he was talking about. And he said, "The customer." So he thought the customer wins when they're competing against each other, and in our case, we felt that it would make more sense that, if we worked together, to innovate and create innovations that are customer-centric, the customer would really win.
SCOTT FULTON, BetaNews: So you don't see a situation where HP Blackbird finds itself competing with Voodoo?
RAHUL SOOD: No, not at all. In fact, as I said, we're one business unit. We're actually building Blackbird in our Calgary facility, which HP liked so much that we're expanding to handle the volume. We're building new equipment, we have a new downdraft bake booth coming in - a very, very high-end paint booth. We've got really cool machinery in Calgary, cool little laser cutting machines and CMC machines [continuous motion closure], it's kind of like a chop shop. It's really neat, the stuff that we have that we're expanding into here.
No, it's not competing against Voodoo. What it's going to do is push Voodoo to the next level. If you look at some of the innovations inside Blackbird, if you think it's cool, when you see the next generation Voodoo, you're going to freak. It's beyond cool, it's really neat what we're going to do there.
History is replete with design innovations that were obviously groundbreaking but which never took root in the broader market, either because customers couldn't afford them or their manufacturers never believed in them enough to move them in quantity into the mainstream. Sometimes it is the "premium" nature of an otherwise revolutionary product that silences the revolution.
But there is a certain degree of ingenuity at the heart of HP's Blackbird 002 that hasn't been tried for decades in this industry, mostly because manufacturers have come to believe that commodity products like computers no longer need to come gift-wrapped. The medium is the message, someone else's marketing manager explained to me once, misinterpreting Marshall McLuhan, not the thing in which it sits.
So whether or not Blackbird truly succeeds as a product, or makes tooled aluminum chasses into a mainstream feature, it has already succeeded in bringing back to the table the whole question of what a computer should be in the minds of its owners. Must it always be something bound to expire in 18 months, or whenever the next new whiz-bang, heavier-duty, even slower operating system requires a more capable CPU? Or can it be something trusted, appreciated, maybe even coveted, even beyond the point where Moore's Law and the boards of directors who abide by it have already declared it dead?
There's definitely a lot of possibilities. It's kind of a canvas, we can do whatever we want to it.
[All photography courtesy HP Gaming Division]
Blackbird may be a good idea but I feel the concept is 'too little, too late' Has anyone noticed that notebooks are starting to outsell desktops? Or that the newer tech really is not much better that the old tech. Here's where I hole-heartily agree with horsecharles. A older P4 (non-HT) is just as good as a dual-core 64bit system. My Athlon XP system works just sweet on 512MB RAM. Me not being a gamer these days actually helps my bank account. Which is also why i'll buy an older 4G iPod for $80 than a new one for $250! Many computer users also want slim, less instrusive, less cabling, simple, combined easy to move around package... Myself included. This type of system will only be selling to the uber-geeks of computer users. The users that have the cash to spend for something like this. maybe it's my older age talking but these days, 5 grand for an aesthetically pleasing system is just not worth it. Which is why i applaud AMD for taking a different road than Intel for CPUs.
Score: 0
|Rahul has proven himself as a capable judge on gaming technology, even better than alienware. I have always loved mods and gaming machines even if I have been unable to be at the top of the specs and i end up building a machine just capable do play what I want and investing further on in upgrades. This machine promises the best of custom made PC´s with the prestige of both voodoo and HP and they allow for future expansion and an amazing design. You can build something similar and can mod it to your hearts content, but it wont be a voodoo or a HP unless you buy it. ;-D
Score: 0
|Join the HP Blackbird Facebook for more info and discussion...
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4869167697
Score: 0
|Big deal, so they can paint a system different-- even lay out innards in different fashion... that's more cosmetic--Richard Simmons / This Old House-- rather than truly genius / inventive.
True visionaries would attempt to port both unused inventions gathering dust, and elements of high end workstations and servers-- to the masses.
For instance:
a system including any of the following: Cell Processor(or with 2-4 other processors, each w/ eight cores), Sun's grid array technology that allows dozens & dozens of processors and ram modules to be utilized AND no bus needed, etc.
Even something as simple as a system with only a flash drive-- i'd pay the premium... whether for gaming or advanced work.
Something revolutionary in performance is needed-- i can do things not much better or faster on today's systems than on Pentium 3's from the 90's...
the only noticeable advantage nowadays is that i can now run more useless crap simultaneously w/o compromising system stability as much: 1. hog OS'es with tons of unnecessary background services running, 2. handfuls of redundant security apps that each target a different sub-niche, 3. scads of installed oem crapware- each needing to: A. auto-start w/ windows, B. check for an update every 10 minutes, C. send helpful statistics back to their home base on a constant basis, D. pre-load themselves in memory/cache... ready at a nanosecond's notice.
But yet, i still can't meaningfully multi-task several commercial-grade apps no matter how powerful system/os/processor/ram w/o experiencing slowdowns / needing reboots.
Score: 0
|Blame the apps then. No application should ever require a reboot of the OS: period.
Score: 0
|"Performance is important, it's a factor, but it shouldn't be about 100% performance."
i think the point was more about beauty, uniqueness, and art.
in that sense, it is VERY inventive.
Score: 0
|Here's a video and audio podcast that you might be interested in:
http://www.podtech.net/h...-massive-product-launch
http://www.podtech.net/h...ackbird-002-will-soar-2
Score: 0
|Nice to see the pricing on this reflect close-to-par CDN/USD:
$5,500.00 (USD)
$5,507.15 (CAD)
Score: 0
|Thanks to the devaluation of the US dollars, you will soon see it will cost more in USD than in CAD. That's not far away, I would say by the end of the year.
Score: 0
|I made a bet with someone on here about the dollar reaching parity before the years' end (can't remember who though). I want my cookie.
But yes, it's great to see pricing adjustments made.
Score: 0
|Aethetics in computer design?
Apple has done this since the 1980's.
Get with the program BN.
Score: 0
|Mr Skinner,
Your comments as usual well noted, however I'm typing this on a Dell XPS M1330. CPU is Intel T7700, on board ram 4gb, GFX Nvidia GS 8400M DDR3,
and that's just it's guts.
Weights about 2.4lb with standard battery, and is promoted as the slimmest 13.3" notebook available.
Whether it's a chick magnet? I'll never know, but it only took me about 6 hours to vlite it's OS to make it work like it looks.
Cheers
Score: 0
|"CPU is Intel T7700, on board ram 4gb, GFX Nvidia GS 8400M DDR3"
That's all well and fine now, but in 3 years time it will be old hat.
My point is that the more 'stylish' computers get the less they can be re-used as it were.
This is a shame as it means more and more PCs will be thrown away (that includes you Mac people too).
It shouldn't have to be that way.
ATX cases should be an ISO standard for computer boxes so that components could be changed and updated as time goes on.
Score: 0
|Skinner, I doubt you RTFA, but they actually covered that.
I'm also guessing you've never priced or purchased a Voodoo computer before.
Voodoo's prices actually aren't all that bad, for one. You just have to remember to factor in your labour. Count the amount of hours it would take you to mod, multiplied by what you'd pay yourself.
Next - the components. Having purchased a Voodoo box before, I know for a fact they use standard components. You can swap 'em in and out with no problems. Your comment is invalid.
Third - what they don't talk about is drivers. I was pleasantly surprised back in the day to find that Voodoo had hand-picked and selected drivers that no only don't conflict, but work well with each other. This is apparent when you start mucking around with them. Voodoo may use slighly older drivers, maybe even beta drivers at the time, but their testing process assures that all works well.
Fourth - this may no longer be their practice, but Voodoo has always shipped machines with recovery discs. I'm not talking a hidden partition, or CD you basically reinstall. I'm talking about a Ghost image with all of the drivers, tweaks, etc, ready to go, sysprepped, and a copy of the BIOS settings.
Score: 0
|considering most OEM MFGs have already gone to BTX, i'd say ATX is on it's way out (even tho i see no reason to use BTX over ATX)
ive seen articles on the blackbird before, it's not just a pretty box with expenive components inside. it's a completely customized gaming/extreme-performance rig. it's completely heatpiped/watercooled and still has amazing airflow. hp didnt just combine the top components, they made a uniquely good and powerful performance PC.
would i buy it if i had the money? probably not, i'd rather not rely on someone else to build my PC, no matter how much it's customized, but i'd recommend it to anyone who'd normally buy an alienware...
Score: 0
|Mr Skinner,
Tax man will replace this in 12 months, indeed I'm waiting for the new Alienware with 64GB Flashdrive & a variety of HD complimentary options, along with dual Nvidia SLI's to become available in OZ.
Cheers mate,
Score: 0
|Perhaps I am the only one, but I would like to see the return of the beige box.
It is the style icon of the 90s.
And we all know the 90s was the best era*.
Plus you can mod it, if the desire takes you, to look like anything you want.
These new 'stylish' computers limit what you can do on the inside AND on the outside as they are often too small to get to the RAM, CPU, motherboard etc and already have enough crap on the outside to stop you from modding it too much.
But then I suppose I'm not the in the genre of people they're trying to market this to...
*If you were in the 60s you won't be able to remember it.
Score: 0
|you can have mine, got about a dozen in a closet.
all my computers are in custom cases now. :-)
Score: 0
|