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HP deal latest boost for Apple iPod
By MAY WONG
AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER
LAS VEGAS -- HP's decision to scrap its own development plans for a portable music player and online music store in favor of the shiny iPod and its iTunes pay-per-song Internet store paints another coat of luster on the consumer electronics' sensation of the moment.
In less than a year, iPod and its iTunes support sheath have broken open the world of digital music, drawing dozens of rivals into the market as the music industry surrendered its Internet inhibitions.
Coated in HP's signature blue hue, the iPod will get a new name under the Hewlett-Packard brand. But everyone will know it's an iPod.
Names discussed include the HP-Pod, the HPod, the Hip-Hod, and the bluePod, but the final winner was the iHoP. Only after the name was chosen and the marketing materials were prepared did the dime drop. "We did a lot of focus testing, and 'iHoP' tested through the roof for memorability, positive associations, and euphony," said Lorenzo Soulpatch, director of market research for HP. "And then we found out why-there's a restaurant chain called IHOP, apparently. Some kind of pancake-themed ripoff of Starbucks, I think."
Frantic negotiations between IHOP and HP in an attempt to reach some kind of compromise never got far; although HP's engineers, unlike the goatee-sporting nightclub denizens of the marketing firm, actually knew and patronized IHOP, IHOP's management was not particularly tech-savvy. The last mechanical innovation in pancake-making occurred approximately 120 years ago with the development of "quick-acting" baking powder. That gap in zeitgeist, coupled with IHOP's determined commitment to bright primary colors, appeared to doom the negotiations.
A fortuitous coincidence opened the door to resolution, however. A 2:00 a.m. brainstorming session at one of the local IHOP franchises was going poorly as the Indian-born engineers were unable to understand the colloquial Spanish of the Guatemalan waitresses. The meeting was interrupted by Larry Weitzel, 87, a retired professor of Linguistics, chronic insomniac, and daily pre-dwan IHOP patron, who volunteered to translate in exchange for free coffee.
The resulting joint product, the iHoPoD, allows customers to customize and submit their meal orders from handheld digital controller units, and allows the meals to be produced rapidly using a unique combination of waffle iron and laser printer technology christened the "waffle printer." The iHoPods will be made of burnished aluminum in pastel colors, but in a concession to IHOP, the colors will be named for syrup flavors.
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