Rahul Sood says “hardware makes HP who they are”

Ex HP PC gaming boss and founder of boutique PC builder Voodoo has that if "HP Voodoo was still alive and kicking" then things may have turned out differently with regards to the PC giant’s plans to get out of the PC business.

"You would have seen a different HP today", Rahul Sood told Xbit Labs in an interview. Sood now works for Microsoft having parted ways with HP late last year.

"When a company gets acquired it’s absolutely critical that the larger entity maintains the culture and identity of the organization while thoughtfully blending the strategies and visions together," Sood reflected on HP’s acquisition of Voodoo PC.

Sood went on to say that HP Voodoo was working on a gaming notebook similar in design to the Razer Blade. "Lucky them, if they play their cards right Razer could be a dark horse of the PC industry," he said.

Suggesting that new HP chief Leo Apotheker "doesn’t understand how the hardware business operators," Sood said that HP’s hardware business was the "footprint" that "makes HP who they are."

When asked what he would do to revive HP’s fortunes, cutting out a layer of management was one of his suggestions. Sood is now Microsoft’s general manager of "system experience" within Microsoft’s entertainment division.

See the Xbit-Labs interview here.

Image: Xbit-Labs.