With the recent launch of the ultraportable 13.3″ Vodoo Envy 133, a laptop many were looking at as a competitor to the Apple MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad X300, it seemed like HP’s acquisition of VoodooPC was going well.
If you’ll recall, HP bought the boutique computer maker almost two years ago. Over the past few days, there have been quite a few rumors flying around that the end of VoodooPC was near (at least as we know it). HP has been aggressively pushing its brand, and Voodoo’s product lines had dwindled (although some saw the Envy as a major boost to the VoodooPC brand).
Techgage was one of the first to report on these rumors (in fact probably the first), and now we have some official responses to the rumors. CNET/Crave was told by an HP spokeswoman that it was “incorrect” in regards to Voodoo being shut down, and that they “…continually assess and rebalance the size of our work force relative to the business environment and market conditions“. As CNET/Crave points out, it could simply mean that Voodoo’s manufacturing lines are being integrated into HP’s (which would probably save quite a bit of money and reduce operating expenses).
Gizmodo got in touch with Rahul Sood, founder of VoodooPC and the Chief Technology Officer of the HP Voodoo Business Unit (VBU), who told them that HP wants to: better leverage its existing resources to bring Voodoo products to market faster and make them more accessible to consumers. I can assure you that Voodoo employees and champions of the brand will continue to work on the conceptualization, design and development of Voodoo products.
Sounds like they will continue on with the Voodoo brand, but that the Voodoo products will be manufactured directly through HP (i.e. like Gizmodo says, the Voodoo folks will continue on in a design role).
Read:
– Techgage
– Crave CNET
– Gizmodo