The $214-million HP takeover of Neoware has boosted awareness of thin client end-user device technology as a mainstream market option, but it has also taken out one of the former top three vendors in the space. Before the acquisition, Wyse Technology held the lion’s share of the market, followed by HP and Neoware respectively. Since the acquisition, HP has gained some ground on Wyse.
What Is HP Gaining?
Those Left Behind
Neoware partnered with IBM in 2002 and Lenovo in 2005. The HP acquisition will certainly weaken these partnerships. This friction may create an opportunity for the smaller thin client vendors to gain market share. |
The takeover has not only boosted HP’s market share, it has also improved HP’s product offering. Neoware’s strengths lay in several areas:
- Stronger Linux offering. HP mainly focused on thin client for Windows environments.
- Thin client management software. Neoware’s software offering includes TeemTalk (Citrix-compatible terminal emulator which connects the thin client to the required host environment) and Image Manager (manages and streams the applications to the appropriate clients). Prior to its acquisition of Neoware, HP had developed an alliance with Altiris for its ThinState software. With Neoware’s software, they will now have the capability to offer a turnkey solution.
- Portable thin client. Previously, HP did not have a notebook-style thin client for mobility.
- VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) thin client. Both Wyse and Neoware were ahead of HP in this area.
