HP’s Bradley Refutes IBM Statement on Research and Development Spending

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 27 (Reuters) – The chief of Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE:HPQ) personal computer division said the company is spending appropriately on research and development, countering recent remarks by rival IBM (NYSE:IBM).

Todd Bradley, rumored to be a leading candidate for the vacant top job at HP, said on Monday recent comments from IBM Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano that HP was no longer spending on innovation, were "fundamentally just wrong.

"I don’t think we’ve shied away from continuing to invest in innovation, I don’t think we’ve shied away from acquiring where we felt it was strategically important to acquire," Bradley said at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference.

HP, the world’s largest PC maker, bought Palm earlier this year for $1.2 billion. It plans to use Palm’s webOS platform for a range of devices, including smartphones, tablets and printers.

Bradley said HP expects to sell roughly 15 million printers next year that are based on webOS.

In response to a question, Bradley HP was not trying to copy Apple, which has focused on controlling both the hardware and software in its products.

"Emulating Apple is not part of our strategy," he said. (Reporting by Gabriel Madway and Alexei Oreskovic, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)