HP CEO rumored to pronounce fate of webOS on Friday
After months of deliberation, Hewlett Packard's new CEO Meg Whitman is rumored to announce the PC maker's plans for webOS on Friday.
Whitman is set to hold an all-hands meeting on Friday at 10:30 AM Pacific to provide the webOS Global Business Unit with her final decision on what to do with the mobile platform, PreCentral claims.
HP originally pointed to webOS as a major reason for its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm last April, but, the result of that partnership, the TouchPad tablet, ended up being a massive failure, costing the company $100 million because of unsold inventory.
Former CEO Léo Apotheker subsequently stunned investors in August when he announced a dramatic business plan that would spin off its PC business and abruptly bring an end to webOS development. After the pronouncement sent HP's stock into a free fall, Apotheker was ousted, with Whitman appointed in his stead.
Whitman, who was reportedly "brought to tears" when she was briefed on Apotheker's strategy, announced in late October plans to hold on to HP's Personal Systems Group after assigning 18 different teams to evaluate the group.
The executive said at the end of November that a decision would come within two weeks time, noting that 600 of HP's employees were "in limbo" waiting for an answer. Tipsters report that webOS team members don't expect "anything good" from the announcement.
One source within the webOS group told AppleInsider in October that HP has likely destroyed any prospects for keeping webOS as an internal project. "HP has made many, many enemies in angry Palm employees and fans," the insider said. "HP's credibility with developers, business partners, retailers and so on is shot, thanks to [management's incompetence]. I don't think developers would listen to us unless we got a fresh start as part of another company."
Rumors have suggested that HP has considered selling webOS to a range of companies, including Oracle. Both Samsung and HTC have reportedly looked into bidding for the OS.
Whitman is set to hold an all-hands meeting on Friday at 10:30 AM Pacific to provide the webOS Global Business Unit with her final decision on what to do with the mobile platform, PreCentral claims.
HP originally pointed to webOS as a major reason for its $1.2 billion purchase of Palm last April, but, the result of that partnership, the TouchPad tablet, ended up being a massive failure, costing the company $100 million because of unsold inventory.
Former CEO Léo Apotheker subsequently stunned investors in August when he announced a dramatic business plan that would spin off its PC business and abruptly bring an end to webOS development. After the pronouncement sent HP's stock into a free fall, Apotheker was ousted, with Whitman appointed in his stead.
Whitman, who was reportedly "brought to tears" when she was briefed on Apotheker's strategy, announced in late October plans to hold on to HP's Personal Systems Group after assigning 18 different teams to evaluate the group.
The executive said at the end of November that a decision would come within two weeks time, noting that 600 of HP's employees were "in limbo" waiting for an answer. Tipsters report that webOS team members don't expect "anything good" from the announcement.
One source within the webOS group told AppleInsider in October that HP has likely destroyed any prospects for keeping webOS as an internal project. "HP has made many, many enemies in angry Palm employees and fans," the insider said. "HP's credibility with developers, business partners, retailers and so on is shot, thanks to [management's incompetence]. I don't think developers would listen to us unless we got a fresh start as part of another company."
Rumors have suggested that HP has considered selling webOS to a range of companies, including Oracle. Both Samsung and HTC have reportedly looked into bidding for the OS.
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I agree!
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LOL. Win.
Edit: Seriously, the fact that HP hasn't already made an announcement does not bode well.
It served it's purpose. It was a nice OS in it's day. It's a remnant of the Palm company. Bye bye.
the sad part is, its better than Android (from my experiences trying both of them)
maybe Google should buy it and move Android R&D to the Palm OS?
also they make sure that the money that Steve Job's brilliance collected for Apple be saved for better things than having to kill Android! (like making an iPad this becomes invisible when turned on its side! (my little joke about obsession with making everything thin, which is very nice, but the MBA/iPad 2 is the limit for sanity reasons, at least that's what i believe))
Or Apple could buy it, the OS has some stuff that could make iOS better (Though not worth price probably)
Tablets are going to kill computers for 80% of applications. They need to keep it and keep developing it.
If tablets are the future, and webOS eventually finds its footing in the marketplace after HP sells it off, HP will be kicking themselves.
If tablets are the future, and webOS eventually finds its footing in the marketplace after HP sells it off, HP will be kicking themselves.
Or if they try to salvage WebOS for smartphones or tablets and fail instead of selling it off they'll be kicking themselves.
Personally, with nothing but a rudimentary, yet modern OS, no viable HW designs, and no feasible ecosystem I think the only way to salvage it would be to sell it. And that's even before you consider Apple's possession here. If Apple can get their HiDPI iPad with feasible performance, price and battery usage out early next year I think it's done deal for the iPad being an iPod like dominance. Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet can have their low-end whatever, but it will be the iPad market, not the tablet market moving forward.
It's like taking insurance when the dealing is showing and Ace in Blackjack. In this case it's the only way not lose everything.
If tablets are the future, and webOS eventually finds its footing in the marketplace after HP sells it off, HP will be kicking themselves.
The whole reason HP keeps having these meetings is because they don't know what the hell to do with WebOS.
They should sell WebOS to someone who can make good things happen.
(but that's what Palm thought when they sold it to HP)
If WebOS finds its footing in the marketplace with some other company... then that was meant to be.
If HP had the answer... then they wouldn't be in the situation they're currently in.
If tablets are the future, and webOS eventually finds its footing in the marketplace after HP sells it off, HP will be kicking themselves.
Yup. They will be like the 3rd Apple co-founder who sold his shares for $2,300.
Got to say, as an owner of a Pre2 (Work) and iPhone 4S (Personal) there's lots I like about the WebOS way of doing things, especially task switching ("Cards") and closing (Swipe off top)
She is a super star manager no doubt. She did wonders at fledgling ebay but HP isn't a new start up. It is a legacy company. A big, fat, 500 pound, diabetic orangutang!
All she'll do is make the products look pretty like a Nicki Manaj doll.
And where is Jon "I wish I were Steve Jobs" Rubinstein? Probably hauling a** down the street with his pride safely tucked into a jansport backpack.
SAY LA VEEEE!
It served it's purpose. It was a nice OS in it's day. It's a remnant of the Palm company. Bye bye.
It was the critical mistake that tanked the Palm company...
the sad part is, its better than Android (from my experiences trying both of them)
Agreed. I still use and love my Palm m515, running PalmOS 4.1. Yes, it's a low-resolution screen, with a stylus and not terribly fast, but it works well, does everything I need and almost never crashes. (I am dreading the day when it stops working...)
WebOS, while possibly a nice system (I don't know, I didn't use it) ended up killing the company because they flushed their entire installed base of customers down the toilet. It's just like what would happen if Microsoft decided to release a Windows 8 that was completely incompatible with current PC hardware and with all previous Windows apps. Faced with the knowledge that there's no way to upgrade without breaking everything, a huge percentage of their customers would switch to other platforms.
HP thought they could buy this mess and make it work. They thought wrong. The whole Palm acquisition was a complete and utter waste of money. Unless it was their intent to simply kill a competitor, of course.