This is good news. I liked WebOS, and I’m glad to see it live on, but it’s hard to figure out where it’ll fit in the current smartphone ecosystem. My gut says either HP couldn’t find a buyer or they didn’t want to.
HP’s TouchPad was the most popular non-iPad tablet in the first ten months of this year, according to a new study from the NPD Group. The TouchPad has the second-largest tablet market share with 204,000 units sold (17 percent of the market), trailed by Samsung at 192,000 units.
It’s a real shame that HP was/is too short-sighted to see value where it exists outside of dull logistics and consulting.
New CEO Meg Whitman makes her first good move. It’s heartening to HP realize that its hardware division has not only an important history but a future, however it is saddening that this vision does not apply to webOS.
Almost hidden in this press release about HP’s plans to buy Autonomy Corporation:
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.
A real shame. webOS and the devices built around it were the only real competition to iOS and the iPad/iPhone line.
Phil Nelson