Rahul Sood: "Creating amazing experiences that customers gush over"

Hello everyone! This is my first guest blog post for Palm. I came to HP as the product of an acquisition: In 1991 I started a company called VoodooPC, which was acquired by HP in 2006. I now work in the innovation program office at Hewlett-Packard (my official title is CTO, Global Gaming). Our role is to help facilitate innovation throughout HP.

The other day I was interviewed by the great folks at PreCentral. They asked some tough questions, and one of them in particular drew a bit of attention. It had to do with gaming and my particular focus on the space. After the interview I got the feeling that my emphasis on gaming might have been misunderstood. While I believe gaming drives innovation, what I really love is creating amazing experiences that customers gush over (check out the photos for details on some of the amazing devices we created under HP!).

Sure, beautiful content like 3D games help drive innovation in our industry. Beautiful content forces chip manufacturers to make their chips more efficient, faster, and more capable. Beautiful content forces us to design our devices so our customers can dream, develop, create, and play on the best, most amazingly designed devices in the world. Beautiful devices are worthy of beautiful content.

But my personal focus is not just gaming -- it just happens to be the edge of my blade. I'd love to hear your comments and questions about the interview, which you can find here.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that we are incredibly excited to welcome the entire Palm team to HP. I know what it's like going from a smaller company into a large giant. I am keenly aware of the challenges and the benefits. Believe me when I say the benefits far outweigh the challenges. The opportunity in front of all of us is unbelievable -- in life and in business you must turn all challenges into opportunities.

I am so excited about webOS and Palm I'm finding it hard to contain my enthusiasm! If you share my enthusiasm, I'd love to hear your thoughts (suggestions, criticisms, favorite games, whatever) about Palm on this discussion board on the Palm Facebook page (and I'm also keen on bikes and cars). There's also a photo album with some additional cool products we've created at HP. See you there!

Rahul Sood

Comments

[carlos]

rahul I think you are a great value for webOS and was from the first second on really happy that you can see the power behind it..like people did back in the day with apple :)

only question is how can I submit ideas I have for your department :)

my email is
in the information box

respectfully

carlos

[Frank Bouknight]

Welcome to the webOS community! I have just returned a Sprint EPIC because it did not fulfill my expectations that it multi-task like the Palm PRE, and the key pad had flat keys rather than domed like PRE. It's battery life is worse than the PRE, also and it is slow to recharge, to boot. I am going to wait for web OS 2.0 and a later version of the PRE series or a PREPad. Hurry, please!
Caphear@gmail.com

[Rahul Sood]

Thanks for the comment, if you have any ideas you want to share find me on Facebook. Thanks!

[Mauricio Hernandez]

Rahul, thank you for supporting WebOS to the level you are, and for appreciating such a great mobile OS.

All we need now is a new phone. * wink, wink *

[Kevin]

Rahul, I LOVE Palm! I moved around 15 people from Verizon last year JUST for the Pre! (only one of them doesn't like, but she's weird! lol)

I was VERY excited about the HP/Palm merger, but my biggest complaint has been that the 'news' has been shaky, bland, & sparse. We obviously know that v2.0 is on its way, we know there is work on a tablet, but there is only speculation on a device.

Why are we not hearing ANY news on new hardware or a more firm commitment to the real fans about what is coming?!? A lot of people are sick of no new hardware (past hardware is HORRIBLE -I'm on my 4th Pre now, myself!).

As for me, I won't switch and am patient for the next HP/Palm device, but I'm also EXTREMELY irritated that we have NOTHING to go by but speculation & hope.

Anything to calm the nerves other than "the next year is going to be incredible"???

[Prashant]

Hey Rahul,

I like your post! I look forward to some Cool WebOS gaming! The competition is probably readying windows phone 7 for xbox gaming as well, so Palm/HP should be ready with something as well! What if Sony joined forces or licensed their products? Imagine PS3 gaming on WebOS?!

WebOS is such a simple programming language. I have a full time job and I was able to write two apps for the app catalog. (TechTray, and soon to come What's-Shaking) . There's no way I have time to learn C++ and Java. Palm needs to really advertise the simplicity of WebOS.

Thanks!

[Durward Blanks]

Hi Rahul, I agree with Kevin. It's frustrating waiting on hardware updates. I like my Pre, but the droids are outpacing all. My adult sons both have the Hero and love it. I've used theirs and am impressed. I know Palm/HP can do better though. I've been a Palm and HP user for years. Currenty have 3 HP laptops and a desktop. I've been through the Palm editions for several years. TREO was great for a while, and Pre was an upgrade. Now, Pre feels "old". Battery life is the pits, keypboard small for my fingers. Like the style overall, but ready for next gen. HP/Palm would benefit from letting us in on how long we have to wait.
PLEASE HELP! Give us some good news.
Thanks,

[dMitra]

Hi Rahul,
Liked your post, but Palm seems to have lost the customer focus, though customer experience was once its forte.

It's been over 2 yeas since Palm Pre was launched, but still I see Palm Centro at Palm's India site. There is no news or update when Palm Pre will be launched in India.

Same story in the US- PalmPre is still not availabble unlocked. I remember the time when Trei 650 and Treo 680 were launched unllocked along with the release on AT&T to let customers with other carriers too enjoy those.

I waited almost a year for replacing Treo 680 for Palm Pre to be available in Inida or get pick an unlocked Palm on my trips the US but to no avail. Finally, I swithed to one of the Androids available here, still wondering if Palm will be same again.

dm

[Jeff]

I'm giving Palm a little break because of possible hurdles due to merger. However, Palm has a history of innovating great products, stagnating, and being left in the dust by the competition. Hope it is not happening again.