RIP HP WebOS devices vol. Palm lost x2

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Bloomberg reports that HP is set to announce plans to spin off its PC business in order to focus on cloud-based software and services. The plans come as HP is reportedly looking to acquire enterprise software company Autonomy Corp. for $10 billion.
Hewlett-Packard may announce the plans as early as today, said the people, who asked not to be identified before a statement. The Palo Alto, California-based company is scheduled to report quarterly earnings today after markets close. 

Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker has said he wants to expand in software and services that help customers deliver computing over the Internet, through the so-called cloud. Hewlett-Packard has been aiming to lessen its dependence on lower-margin PCs, where growth has stalled as consumers flock to tablet-style computers like those made by Apple Inc. (AAPL).
HP has long been a leading PC manufacturer, but has only recently stepped into the mobile market with its acquisition of Palm last year, pushing out several smartphones based on webOS and just last month officially launching its TouchPad tablet. The TouchPad had been regarded as one of the leading potential challengers to the iPad, but sales have reportedly been slow. Today's report does not mention whether HP's mobile efforts will be included in the PC spinoff company or remain with the core HP company. 

Meanwhile, PC growth has stagnated or even reversed with weakness in the global economy over the past few years. Apple has, however, been able to maintain strong forward momentum amidst the weak overall market, and has further eaten into PC growth by launching the successful iPad as an alternative to the traditional PC for some customers. Earlier today, research firm DisplaySearch released data showing Apple handily leading the market for mobile PCs when tablets are included. 

Update According to The Wall Street Journal, HP will be exiting the tablet and smartphone hardware business, although it will continue work on webOS and presumably license it out to third-party manufacturers.
As part of Hewlett-Packard's planned spin off of its personal computer business, it will keep the webOS software business but let go of the hardware, meaning H-P is shutting down its tablets business, people familiar with the matter said. H-P's tablet is the TouchPad, an iPad rival that went on sale in July starting at $499. Earlier this month, H-P cut its price 20%. 

H-P got webOS when it acquired Palm Inc. in April 2010 for $1.2 billion. H-P may license the webOS software to others, the people added.
Update 2 HP confirms the rumors.
HP also reported that it plans to announce that its board of directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG). HP will consider a broad range of options that may include, among others, a full or partial separation of PSG from HP through a spin-off or other transaction. 

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.
 
after my experience with the Palm Pre..I'm not surprised.

WebOS - great
hardware - mediocre
available aps - terrible
 
Doesn't necessarily mean that they won't license it out to third party manufacturers towards the future, which is what I think would have been best from the get go. The webOS software itself got incredible reviews, and a major thing that held its initial devices back was poor craftsmanship on the design of the phone and a lack luster hardware.

If a company like HTC can hone the webOS software we might be in for a great line of devices. Or maybe Nokia will be intrigued since they discontinued Symbian in the states.

We need a technology section man.
 
WebOS is awesome. Would love to see HTC or Samsung get their hands on it and do a slate style device. My girl currently uses a Pixi and im amazed at how good the OS is. The hardware is definately holding it back.
 
i love WebOS.. 
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the cards multitask interface is unmatched IMO.. 
 
Originally Posted by proper english

i love WebOS.. 
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the cards multitask interface is unmatched IMO.. 

WP7 Mango uses basically the same interface, check it out.
 
Unfortunate but inevitable.

WebOS itself is part of the problem. Its a laggy OS in general just by how its coded but the bad hardware and extremely slow turnover in devices didnt help at all.
How do you reboot a device twice when it originally had only marginal success. Thats asking for failure. Youre doing the same thing over, and over, and..

I dont think outsourcing will happen. No one will put stock and make devices for an OS that cant sell.
 
crazy best buy reported they couldn't even sell more than 7% of touchpad inventory, and the units they sold half were returned
 
I put the blame on HP, for the failure of WebOS. The hardware "SUCKS" plain and simple. Its a clunky device, its not competively priced as other tablets out there. (They just reduce the price by $100) WebOS great software just terrible direction. HP didn't market the tablet as it was suppose, it didn't get proper support from the developers. Also most of HP products lines are bargain basement laptops (cheap customers, who want a cheap price). HP got what it deserve for selling an expensive product cause most of its consumers are cheap people, who look for low prices. You can find cheap laptops and desktops with little to no latest technology in them and people will still buy it just cause of the cheap price.
 
[h1][/h1]
[h1]HP Dumping Tablet and Phone Products, webOS on Hold[/h1]
5:50 PM - August 18, 2011 - By Kevin Parrish -
Source : HP

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After tanking on the market with its TouchPad tablet, HP is shutting down its webOS-related tablet and smartphone division, and will put the OS on hold.

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Just over a year after HP purchased Palm for its seemingly-tasty webOS software (for $1.2 billion, no less), the company has suddenly decided to put the operating system on hold altogether. The announcement isn't quite official, but the company clearly stated its intentions in a Thursday press release, that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones.

"In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward," the company said.

The news arrives after reports of HP launching the 64 GB version of its white Wi-Fi TouchPad tablet only in Europe. The device features a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor (APQ8060), HP's webOS 3.0, a 1.3MP camera, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 802.11b/g/n and more. The Pre 3 smartphone also went on sale in Europe just one day prior, and still hasn't reached the North American market as of this writing.

HP originally began its journey with Palm and webOS on April 28, 2010. Since then, HP made webOS out to be the next big operating system after quickly killing off webOS' creator, Palm, in February 2011. By March, HP boasted that its new OS would be on every PC shipping in 2012, and even revealed months later that it was in talks with other companies about licensing out webOS. The company even launched its first webOS smartphone, the Veer, in May.

All seemed well in the land of HP.

But then the TouchPad hit the shelves on July 1, and HP seemingly went quiet. Consumers weren't digging its new tablet offering, and the company decided to first introduce a $50 discount. When that wasn't enough to move tablets off store shelves, HP offered spot discounts of $100 at various retailers until the company caved in and decided to make the reduction a permanent fixture. [color= rgb(255, 0, 0)]Then [/color]Wednesday brought reports[color= rgb(255, 0, 0)] that Best Buy was currently sitting on a mound of TouchPad tablets, selling only 25,000 of the 270,000 units it had on stock. Best Buy reportedly wants HP to take all of the unsold tablets back.[/color]

“It’s obvious that they were using the TouchPad as a make or break event for webOS devices,
 
Just in case you guys didn't know, the head designer for WebOS, Matias Duarte, is now the head designer for Android. ICS will be
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Saw this coming.

These tech companies need to stop trying to ride Apple's wave and make their own lane.

Apple makes specialized products that perfectly fit into their own ecosystem and corporate ideology. These other companies are just mimicking AAPL's every move, attempting to cash in on Cupertino based frenzies and its backfiring on them horribly.

Thats why I respect what Microsoft is currently doing. They're taking their time and building Windows 8 from the ground up so that its differentiated from everything else on the market and speaks directly to needs of consumers still sitting on the fence. W8 will tie together their corporate products, their Windows Phone project and their PC monopoly, while expanding the reach of their new XBOX Live cash cow and allowing them to progressively move in on the booming touchscreen tablet, monitor, laptop and TV market. Couple that with their promising Nokia partnership and a Post-Jobs Apple, may soon flip flop in popularity with Ballmer's renewed Microsoft in the near future.
 
Originally Posted by soltheman

Doesn't necessarily mean that they won't license it out to third party manufacturers towards the future, which is what I think would have been best from the get go. The webOS software itself got incredible reviews, and a major thing that held its initial devices back was poor craftsmanship on the design of the phone and a lack luster hardware.

If a company like HTC can hone the webOS software we might be in for a great line of devices. Or maybe Nokia will be intrigued since they discontinued Symbian in the states.

We need a technology section man.
When Palm was up for sale neither one wanted anything to do with the company. I'm sure they could benefit from the company but the time required to put might not be beneficial to their main focuses. It would have been better for Nokia, Meego/Maeo were a bust, they didn't want to go to Android. WP7 has potential. From what I hear with WP8, they are gonna give companies a lot more flexibility. Custom ROMS, I really hope so!
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I played briefly with a Palm Pixi, software was nice but the hardware was $#+. I think HP/Palm were both foolish. Poor hardware and an OS based off of Linux, you think that would be open sourced. Not even just open sourced but the right amount of attention given to developers. They are really the driving force of the OS.

This was bound to happen and pretty much everyone knew that.

Maybe Google will buy them and acquire some patents
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webOS is my favorite OS of all of the mobile phones i used to sell and its something i often recommended to entry level, hesitant smartphone users. however their hardware was plasticky and cheap and their app market only boasts about 40,000 apps. the only app market more pitiful is RIMs. WebOS could be great if people actually developed for it.
 
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