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As an addendum to yesterday’s revelation that HP was staying in the PC business, it sounds like webOS is on its way to an early grave. We don’t mean that the HP is going to spin it off, or re-purpose the platform for something else, we mean kill it dead and shed 500 jobs in the process. The Guardian claims to have the inside story, and the decision has already been made.
HP bought Palm in 2010 for $1.2 billion, but spent nearly a year getting the first new webOS devices out. The program was unceremoniously frozen by former HP CEO Leo Apotheker, and new CEO Meg Whitman seems to be following through on it. The speculation is backed up by Whitman’s deflection of questions on webOS in the recent earnings call. She preferred to discuss Windows 8 slates over webOS.
There has been talk of selling Palm, but if HP is truly shuttering it, there must not have been any takers. It would be sad to see webOS go, but the market just might not be capable of supporting another mobile OS. Do you think this is the webOS swan song?
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LordMetzen
October 30, 2011 at 3:09am
Even the name is wrong...WebOS....translates to (man) "balls" in spanish...not the best name for an OS.
500vdc
October 29, 2011 at 8:29pm
Too good to let die. Hanging in as long as I can with an TouchPad and an AT&T Palm 3. Feel sorry for all the great ex-Palm engineers and programmers to see their baby go though this disaster. Still hanging on to a glimmer of hope....
Holly Golightly
October 29, 2011 at 2:00pm
HP has a history of making bad choices, so I am not surprized at all. They just like killing off great things. Just like they killed VooDooPC, they just had to kill of WebOS. I don't think I ever want to buy an HP computer at all. Just too sloppy and disloyal.
livebriand
October 30, 2011 at 2:51pm
idk... WebOS never gained much market share, but they are a huge PC manufacturer, and with tons of people using their pcs, I can't imagine them dropping support for that. However, given what Apotheker tried to do with the PC business, I'm no longer so sure. Seriously, if they were going to abondon webOS, couldn't they have at least made the source code avalible?
Holly Golightly
October 30, 2011 at 11:01pm
You are absolutely correct! They should make the source code open to users out there. I mean, why kill it all the way? The future is definitely mobile at some point in time, and they locked themselves out of what could have been a great opportunity. HP can not expect instant success right away. Things just don't work like that. It took time for Android to become successful, and the iPod was a transition. It took 3 generations to make it an iconic sensation. Then came the iPhone which continued on that legacy. What HP expects is instant results. I would not be surprised if they do it again. Apotheker was a complete joke. I am glad he is gone!
Neel Chauhan
October 30, 2011 at 8:56am
I agree with you. HP makes choices which go nowhere. They buy all these companies just to throw them out. HP wants all these companies to be in every aspect of our digital lives but HP is really making themselves fail and giving their customers to rivals.
When Dell or Acer made a gaming PC, they didn't buy anyone (not to forget that Dell bought Alienware), but HP needed VoodooPC to make a gaming PC, and when HP didn't need Voodoo, they just threw Voodoo out instead of selling it to CyberPower or iBUYPOWER.
Apple did not need Creative Labs to create the iPod, or RIM to create the iPhone, yet Apple is the most successful company right now, and HP is buying and trashing like crazy which is going to be less sucessful than a 5-employee SMB.
Holly Golightly
October 30, 2011 at 10:52am
I think HP's real intentions is patents. It is the only logical thing. Why else would HP close something they bought out in less than a year? I mean, we are talking about billions in dollars spent just for a few months. Fact is, HP truly lacks innovation. Even though their slogan is HP:Invent... If anything, I would go as far as saying they are the least innovative PC companies out there. All they are going to do is continue to make cheap desktops and laptops until they go out of business. The future is about mobility and power, 2 of which HP blocked themselves from. I do not understand why not just go directly for the patents and then license them off to other companies? Imagine if WebOS became something like Android, or if VooDooPC was still in business? Sigh, we will never know. My concern now is who are they going to buy off next?
froggz
October 28, 2011 at 4:47pm
This is how HP can afford to waste millions of dollars on experiments. They contract out to the US military for billions of dollars to maintain our networks. The worst part is they are doing such a horrible job at it, we are paying them literally thousands of dollars to lease one 10 year old computers with outdated OS and software all in the name of secure network and yet the Chinese have no problem hacking our networks overseas.I truly despise HP and hope they go under before the tax payers have to keep dumping any more money in this worthless company.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/hp-holds-navy-network-hostage/
Carlidan
October 29, 2011 at 8:18pm
have to agree with fabulous on this one. I've read the article. No mention on WebOS. They could of gotten the money from diffrent sources of income. Connecting it to just one source is kind of far fetched. :)
TheKitty
October 28, 2011 at 4:24pm
Well they could ensure current TouchPads could be upgraded to Win8
Keith E. Whisman
October 28, 2011 at 4:01pm
They shouldn't have purchased web os to begin with, it was a colossal waste of money that people like me knew would end up in the dump. They do need to honor their customers that purchased their tablets by upgrading them to Ice Cream Sandwich android os and offering free android equivalant apps that were purchased on hp's joke, err, I mean app store.
Carlidan
October 29, 2011 at 8:20pm
The concept of a WebOs isn't a bad thing, I just don't think most people are not ready for it.
someuid
October 28, 2011 at 3:12pm
If they can't sell it, they should open source it to the world without any reservations. At least it would be something in return for the 500 jobs they are destroying. And who knows what possible job opportunities it might spawn for those poor 500 people if some other company decided to pick up where HP screwed up.
For the money these business leaders are paid, they only seem able to avoid ice bergs after they've hit them the first time.
Captain_Steve
October 28, 2011 at 6:07pm
If they send it to the world of Open Source, then it makes it much harder to patent troll later on.
Neel Chauhan
October 28, 2011 at 3:04pm
HP's going nowhere. They buy companies like Palm and Voodoo and just throw them out in a year or two, and HP lost 50 million dollars, as well as killed many people's jobs, and gave their rivals customers.
When Dell bought Alienware, they made Alienware go somewhere, but Dell does not buy companies the way HP does. HP just to tries to be big and rich when they are really making their products worse and more unreliable.
See Apple. They're the most successful company right now and did not need to buy RIM or Nokia or Creative Labs to create the iPod and the iPhone, and don't forget, the iPad.
CaptainFabulous
October 29, 2011 at 10:23am
Ummm, I think you need to hit the history books. Apple buys up companies left and right in order to use their tech in their devices.
AETAaAS
October 28, 2011 at 3:00pm
Sad to see such a waste, but HP's standing with Microsoft whose upcoming Windows 8 and WP OSes are set to enter a similar market as WebOS just wouldn't justify HP spending money and manpower developing it.
lo_tek
October 28, 2011 at 2:54pm
We already have iOS 5, Symbian, Android's God-only-knows-how-many OS's, Symbian, Blackberry's OS, and Windows mobile OS. Yeah, we really needed webOS for diversity, lol. WebOS will not be missed.
