“Not to be out done by IBM, Hewlett-Packard is promising to
storm the e-commerce arena girded with a new Internet software
code-named “Fremont” that can be downloaded for free — the same
way the Linux operating system is.”
“According to analysts, HP executives have said the new software
is written in Java, the language written by Sun Microsystems, to
run on any computer. It will make a plethora of e-commerce services
available to any company downloading it free-of-charge from the
Internet. HP is expected to announce all the details of the program
and its e-commerce counter attack at a Tuesday news
conference.”
“Industry experts said this is just what the 61-year-old company
needs to jump-start it out of its current financial slump. In its
fiscal year ended October 31, 1998, HP’s net income fell 5.6
percent to $2.9 billion (US$), while it sales rose a paltry 10
percent to $47 billion. Compare this to 1993 to 1997 when its net
income soared an average of 46 percent, and you begin to understand
the urgency of its sudden foray into e-commerce.”