Hewlett-Packard to discontinue sales of Apple iPod

Hewlett-Packard to discontinue sales of Apple iPod

Hewlett-Packard has decided to discontinue their lucrative deal with Apple, which enabled them sell Apple iPod under their brand name. The company had announced the deal in the month of January last year and had been quite successful in the market. They began selling HP branded iPod in august last year. HP spokesperson Ross Camp clarified on the issue: “We do remain committed to our digital-entertainment strategy. We decided that reselling the iPod does not fit within that strategy.”

This move is quite surprising, as the company just recently had added Apple iPod Shuffle to their range. It would be however take sometime for them to stop offering iPods to their customers as they plan to discontinue by the month of September. They expect to clear up their inventory by then which also includes Apple iPod Mini.

Experts however believe that the move would not mean that HP would also discontinue shipping their PCs shipped with Apple iTunes installed which complimented the digital music player. However, it might mean that Hewlett-Packard might be thinking about developing their own range of MP3 players to tap in the hugely popular market segment. Though, as per their agreement with Apple they cannot do that until the month of August 2006.

The company would however continue to support the products they sold until the end of their warranty period.