It seems like forever but HP has finally decided the fate of webOS and the internet is blowing up with mixed reactions of the deal. The company, which only bought Palm and with it webOS in April 2010, has already thrown it into the too hard pile, even after spending US$1.2 billion on the acquisition.
UPDATE: Rumours are intensifying after Meg Whitman, current CEO of HP, told a room of HP and Palm employees that a final decision to continue or not continue to support the fledgling webOS will come in three to four weeks.
Remember when HP bought Palm in 2010? And remember when HP killed webOS little over a year later in August? Ah, good times.
Well, it turns out that HP is looking to close the chapter that is Palm and webOS for good, with a report from Reuters saying that they are looking to sell the webOS unit for “hundreds of millions of dollars,” which isn’t surprising given the recent events.
Amazon appears to be the front-runner amongst a number of companies that are in talks with HP over buying Palm and it struggling webOS business, after acquiring the company in April 2010, according to a report published last night.
Palm's hardware and software is on life support (Image: Palm)
A rumour is now circulating that HP could now cancel its planned PC spin-off after former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has now been announced as the new CEO of the company. This could also mean that Palm has a chance to continue to live on, if Whitman doesn’t decide to spin or axe webOS’ hardware division.
Not a good sign for the US economy, but nevertheless HP has decided to add more people to the number of the unemployed. The company will axe as many as 525 jobs from the webOS division, following plans of its shutdown.
Despite the fact that the price drop may have saved webOS, it appears the app developers have started to take up Microsoft’s offer to switch platforms and build their applications for Windows Phone 7 after confirmation that it has received 500 responses to its call.
The product that killed the operating system. (HP TouchPad/supplied)
Two reports have emerged just recently that the team inside HP that was responsible for the WebOS hated the two HP devices, the Veer and the TouchPad, and even went as far as testing the OS on the rival iPad 2 to compare it.
It’s been just 16 months since HP acquired Palm and this morning HP has announced that they will “discontinue operations for webOS devices.” After releasing the Veer and TouchPad, HP has determined that the devices have “not met internal milestones and financial targets.” And while this isn’t the death of webOS, with the company saying that they will “continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward,” it is pretty close.
Jon Rubinstein with the original Palm Pre
HP has today announced that, just eleven days after the anniversary of their purchase of Palm, they will be giving Stephen DeWitt the task of leading HP’s webOS global business unit. Previous head Jon Rubinstein will now take over as Senior Vice President of Global Innovation for HP’s Personal Systems Group (lovely name HP).
Also announced at HP/Palm’s webOS event was an exciting new tablet tablet. Called the TouchPad, Palm has included their webOS, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, 16GB or 32GB of inbuilt storage, 1GB RAM (2X the Pre 2), a Gyroscope, accelerometer and compass and finally a Dual Core 1.2GHz processor.
Image Source: Engadget.com
At an event in San Fransisco, HP (and Palm) have announced 2 new phones, the Veer and Pre 3.
The HP Veer is powered by Palm’s webOS. It has HSPA+, 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, 8GB of inbuilt storage, an Accelerometer, proximity and light sensor and a Snapdragon 7230/800MHz CPU.
Yes, that’s right.. Terence is on holidays in Rome! So everyone at TECHGEEK.com.au is partying like crazy. We talk about the new Windows Phone 7, The Android ‘dude’ problem, #newtwitter, the iPhone app that allows you to spy and much much more.
Yes, apparently Google is into shooting photos of dead people as photos of the dead appeared on Google Street View. Ouch. As well, Motorola gets sued by Microsoft, Facebook lets you download everything you ever uploaded or wrote on Facebook, and MySpace brings out a craptastic new logo.
Mark Hurd, chief executive officer and chairman for HP, has resigned after investigations on allegations of sexual harassment.
The decision was made by Mark Hurd and HP’s board of directors after a sexual harassment claim, made by a former marketing contractor, was made against HP and Hurd.