HP to announce Sprout, a computing device combining a large display, touch surface, 3D scanner, and overhead projector
HP Will Unveil New Computing Product Called Sprout Next Week — When Hewlett-Packard announced it would split in two — one company devoted to PCs and printing …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sprout lands at an awkward moment for HP: two weeks after Meg Whitman's team confirmed it will cleave into two public companies by late 2015, this sensor-and-projector desktop belongs to HP Inc. — the PCs-and-printers half being spun off as the slower-growth business (split into enterprise and PC/printer businesses). The timing frames Sprout as evidence that the consumer hardware company can still originate categories rather than manage them.
There's also an organizational irony worth noting: the 2012 restructuring combined the printer and PC groups to cut costs, while the pending split now separates printing from PCs entirely — and Sprout, which blends display, touch surface, 3D scanning, and projection into one desk, sits right on the seam between the two. The pickup across Engadget, ZDNet, Digital Trends, Business Insider and others shows broad curiosity but no verdict yet.
First-order effects
- HP gets a flagship for the soon-to-be-independent HP Inc.: Sprout must justify that the PC/printing company can fund genuinely novel hardware instead of competing on price, as its $100 Stream tablets already do.
- Early buyers get an unusual all-in-one form factor — large display plus projected touch workspace with integrated 3D capture — aimed at creative and maker workflows mainstream PCs don't serve.
Second-order effects
- Rivals in all-in-one desktops (Dell, Lenovo, Acer) face pressure to answer with their own sensing-and-projection designs or concede the 'immersive computing' niche to HP outright.
- Component makers in depth cameras, short-throw projection, and capacitive touch mats gain a marquee OEM design win that could pull those parts down the cost curve for everyone else.
Third-order effects
- If Sprout finds traction, it strengthens the argument behind the split itself — that a focused consumer hardware company can take category risks the combined HP couldn't prioritize.
- If it stalls, it reinforces the pattern where premium experimental form factors stay niches while the PC market consolidates around commodity designs — a real open question as of October 2014.
The trend: PC makers are responding to commoditized volumes by betting on hybrid input/output form factors — display-plus-projected-touch plus 3D sensing — to create categories the Wintel box no longer defines.