Rahul Sood, former CTO of HP gaming PC business and now general manager at Microsoft Xbox division, today posted on FaceBook criticism targeting the PC industry. Sood basically says that there is not a single PC maker that can match design and appeal Apple products have. He wrote, “Every executive in the PC industry should use an Apple notebook. Apple doesn’t just design products they designed their business & process.”

Sood also posted comments about HP, he wrote “we could have done it — just need a few years of patience, and investment in our tooling/process. We really could have done it. […].. Especially with webOS, what a combination that would have been.” Sood, founder of VooDoo PC came to HP after HP bought the company, and his VooDoo team was instrumental in design of now highly acclaimed Envy laptop lineup. However, as Sood points out even though Envy laptops are very well made they are still behind Apple when it comes to design.

Sood further added, "There are ways to cut costs that don’t involve cutting the customer experience. It requires broad thinking — and there is a reason design is becoming a focus at many companies. […] Most people don’t care about or pay attention to “specs”. They might look at memory and storage, but beyond that it’s about what hits their senses. … Things like battery life and display size, colors, etc. For years the PC industry has been all about size and share. Since we all basically grew up on technology, I’d love to see experience-led thinking across the entire industry.”

Sood is right when he says that PC makers should focus on design and customer experience. Since Apple introduced titanium PowerBooks a decade ago, PC makers have been playing catch-up. The design and user experience Apple brings to the table is not matched by a single PC maker today and with the speed Apple is moving today it’s highly unlikely anyone will come close soon.
[Via Conceivably Tech]