Essentially it's been consumed and digested by the rest of HP:

Many people assumed that Voodoo had designed these notebooks, when in reality we did not. However, it's clear that our influence has reached almost all corners of the company. Go back 3 years and look at how HP's products have changed; it's pretty incredible.

So, what happened to Voodoo? Well, we've been looking way ahead into the future. Voodoo has been transitioning from "desktop & notebook" manufacturing to something beyond. Does this mean you'll never see a Voodoo or VoodooDNA desktop or notebook again? Hardly, I'm sure you will. ..but while we hash this out you will continue to see products with our fingerprints released from various areas of HP. [Emphasis ours]

That's a guess, not a confirmation, stated in the tone of a man who's very clearly moved on. Voodoo might continue to live on through HP or whatever, but color us surprised if you see another actual Voodoo PC. [Rahul Sood via Engadget]

CNET decided that HP, the world's leading manufacturer, will best be able to survive. A full third of its revenue comes from software, services, and enterprise storage, which won't take as big of a hit as consumer hardware. Their hardware is well balanced from consumer up to large businesses, including servers, storage, and printers as well as laptops and desktops. CNET does predict that VoodooPC isn't going to cut it, but that's a minor problem compared to HP's strengths.

Dell's move to services, software, and storage is helping it as well, and the company's move to China and India is a smart one. But Dell has recently undergone a change of direction with its smaller notebooks, and may have to scramble to figure out what sells in a depressed economy.

Acer has been sacrificing money for marketshare by aggressively pricing its netbook line, and may have to cut staff to make up for its losses.

According to CNET, Lenovo is totally screwed. They reported a quarterly loss of 78%, and is more focused on business than consumer lines. They're still doing fine in China but not so hot here in the States.

This is all guesswork, since nobody knows what the economy will look like next week, let alone two years in the future. And nobody's sure what's going to happen to the buying habits of computer users, or the market for business PCs. But I think the analysis on HP and Acer is dead-on: HP has the money and the depth to adapt to a changing market, but Acer will have to make all the right moves to stay competitive. [CNET]

"We're basically plugging into the larger businesses," he says. "Notebooks will be manufactured and handled in Asia where there's much broader distribution. I can't just snap my fingers and have [the Envy and Omen] in Russia, Dubai and other places where people are begging for them. To scale the business and stay true to the brand, we have to structure it accordingly." Regarding layoffs, he did acknowledge: "There are definitely going to be people impacted. With any change, we have to take that impact in stride and keep pressing forward."

Rahul also addressed the concerns that some gamers had that Voodoo had abandoned its core audience. He surprised us with an interesting statistic: 25% of the Voodoo customer base are gamers, he says. The other 75% are "fortunate people who love the style and the fact that our products are so different." On the matter of the sleek new Envy not being a gaming PC at all, he mentions that it's not the first time, and that the hot-selling 12-inch Envy had integrated graphics too.

He stresses that the crazy Omen desktop and the Blackbird are both solid gaming platform. He also says that he's interested in the new directions that DIY enthusiast gamers will soon be taking. "The DIY enthusiast market will change," he says. "They're going to focus on more efficient computing rather than speeds and feeds, to bring more value to the end than just framerates. The DIY market will evolve—that's an opportunity for us to look into."

We have no idea what that might mean. Could it be a line of Voodoo-branded accessories? Or simply designing systems themselves with more DIY tweakbility in mind, like the Blackbird? Your guess is as good, or actually probably better, than mine, so go ahead and guess.

Rahul understood our concerns, and replied with the following slightly ambiguous message:

HP is working on a plan to better leverage its existing resources to bring Voodoo products to market faster and make them more accessible to consumers. I can assure you that Voodoo employees and champions of the brand will continue to work on the conceptualization, design and development of Voodoo products.

We can infer from this that the Voodoo brand will continue, and the Voodoo team will stay more or less intact, but that Voodoo may move into a more designy role here, and do less of the nuts-and-bolts assembly that it was doing before. That's my interpretation. As was the case a month ago when we inquired as to the health of Voodoo, Rahul directed us to his blog for further info. Thanks Rahul!

Update: It looks like Voodoo also lit their homepage on fire. Hmmmmm....

The new system also comes with a 2.0MP camera in place of the 151's 1.3MP, plus a fingerprint reader. Oddly enough, the 15.4" screen's resolution is down a tad: the 151 had 1680x1200, while the 152 has 1680x1050. It also weighs more: 7 lbs, instead of the 151's 6lbs.

Naturally, the 152 supports DirectX 10 and has NVIDIA's GeForce 8600GT 512MB graphics card. How noisy is it, you ask?

Gamers, content creators and mobile enthusiasts alike will also marvel at one of the quietest Voodoo notebooks to date.

Original image I had up top this AM:

Full press release if you're interested:

HP Sets Standard for Power and Portability with Latest Voodoo Notebook PC

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 26, 2007 - HP today introduced the Voodoo ENVY M:152 notebook PC, setting a new standard for combined portability and performance.

The ENVY M:152 is the first Voodoo notebook to feature the breakneck speeds provided by the latest Intel® Centrino® Duo processor technology, including the Intel® Core ™ 2 Duo mobile processor technology, the Mobile Intel ® PM965 Express Chipset and the Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN, delivering a powerful multimedia experience. The notebook also represents a seamless marriage of muscle and mobility that will impress even the most demanding user with its support of the new Intel Core™ 2 Extreme mobile processor X7800 Extreme CPU.

All these features come in a small package - the notebook showcases a 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050 matte finish display, and weighs just 7lbs with a battery. Gamers, content creators and mobile enthusiasts alike will also marvel at one of the quietest Voodoo notebooks to date.

"People look to Voodoo custom machines to deliver the best in power and design, and we stayed true to that tradition when building this mobile powerhouse," said Rahul Sood, chief technology officer, Global Gaming Business Unit, HP. "The ENVY M:152 combines the best in processing power and performance with a hot design and the latest in wireless technology. It is built for people that want to push the limits of mobile computing, and look good doing it."

Users of Voodoo notebooks have come to expect stunning image quality, and the ENVY M:152 continues in this tradition. It supports DirectX 10 and features the NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600GT 512MB video card, providing videophiles and gamers alike with incredible multimedia playback qualities.

"With support for DirectX 10 and NVIDIA PureVideo technology, the GeForce 8600M GT GPU delivers an unmatched gaming and movie experience on a light, cutting-edge notebook PC," said Rene Haas, general manager, notebook GPU business, NVIDIA. "The ENVY M:152 will allow mobile power users to truly experience Windows Vista and the latest wave of visually rich entertainment and applications."

The machine comes jam-packed with a range of connectivity and convenience features, including an integrated 2.0MP camera, support for Bluetooth™, and a fingerprint reader. And with 2 x Dimm DDR2-667 slots with up to 4GB of memory when used with Windows Vista™ 64-bit operating system, the notebook has the power to support the most demanding applications and multimedia collections.

For a complete listing of features or to customize a Voodoo ENVY M:152, visit www.voodoopc.com.

The Omen series come in aluminum cases with too-cool-for-the-room designer cutouts and so forth. You know, the type of things that are cries for help. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [VoodooPC via Digital Trends]

The neat part about this laptop is that you can customzie the finish to any of over 20 different colors, and even match optional keyboard/mouse/speakers to that color. There are also tattoos that can be placed on the back for an extra $222.30. – Jason Chen

envy u:734 [VoodooPC via DailyCD]

Product page [via Bios Magazine]