Has HP left it too late to join the ecommerce race?

Hewlett-Packard's (HP) marketing machine was firing on all cylinders last week when the company unveiled its latest server in New York. The launch was part of the hardware giant's larger e-services campaign, designed to compete with similar drives from its principal rivals, IBM, Sun and Compaq.

HP claims that the new N-Class server is the fastest and cheapest in the mid-range to high-end market. But a super-speedy server alone won't make HP the ecommerce vendor of choice.

HP is a relative newcomer to the ecommerce bandwagon. When its competitors were shouting about the digital age a year ago, HP kept very quiet.

HP's March reorganisation saw it split into two separate divisions, one of which - neatly titled the Computing and Imaging Company - will support the e-services campaign. This has helped define the emerging strategy.

But is this mere cosmetic change? According to Giga analyst, Martha Bennett, HP's hardware is indeed up to the job but the company will find it hard to back up its marketing commitments because its services are neither "compelling, credible or deliverable".

"In its desire to avoid being caught napping again, HP has leapt up and jumped the gun," said Bennett.

Robin Bloor, chief executive of Bloor Research, was equally pessimistic: "IBM has a $40bn consultancy and a global marketing campaign backing e-business and Sun is naturally identified as the e-business company because of Java, etc. It won't happen for HP just because it says it will - it has a long way to go."

At the launch, marketing executives enlisted an impressive line-up of end users, all of whom were eager to sing HP's praises. These included the Aberdeen Group and Barclays Bank Capital Division, while the skipper of American One - the US sailing outfit powered by HP - put in an appearance.

Also present was Geraldine DiCostanzo, vice president of Siac, a computing services subsidiary of the American Stock Exchange. Some of the Wall Street trading floor systems run on HP kit. She said: "HP met our needs better than their competitors."

HP's worldwide marketing manager for the Enterprise Computing Solutions Organisation, Nick Earle, was in full voice at the launch to champion HP's chances. Unsurprisingly, he was adamant that HP can beat IBM and Sun: "Talk about ramping up - at this rate HP will make inroads into the market faster than any other."

According to Michael Mael, vice president of applications and Web services at PsiNet, one of HP's e-services partners, the N-Class server's lavish launch and clear ecommerce message would have been unthinkable a year ago. "HP was slower to recognise the revolution that was happening - but it has caught up well," he said.

Bloor hasn't written the company off altogether either, claiming that HP could turn things round over the next year.

So HP does stand a chance. But only if it can make up a lot of ground to compete with IBM's marketing might and consultancy heritage, and Sun's reputation for e-business.

One thing is for sure: the battle won't be won on products - it's all down to image and services.