Author Topic: HP announces it's discontinuing all WebOS device development (Read 20,952 times)

40hz · « **on:** August 19, 2011, 12:18 PM »

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

That is too funny. For a minute you really had me...

What?

You're kidding!

You mean it's not a joke?

No more WebOS?
No more TouchPad?
No more Pre 3?

And HP also announced it plans on getting out of the PC business?

Wow! Can you say "WTF?"

OSNews article here.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2011, 12:42 PM »

Would anyone cry if HP disappeared altogether? I certainly wouldn't.

40hz · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2011, 01:07 PM »

Many of us in server rooms all over the world would.

So will a lot of developers who were interested in the WebOS platform. Especially since HP was doing everything it could to treat them right. Contrast with iOS if you need to examine why.

It's seldom a good thing when there's less competition in the market.

Just my tuppence.

wraith808 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2011, 01:21 PM »

Quote from: 40hz on August 19, 2011, 01:07 PM

Just my tuppence.

I'll throw in a couple more towards your pot.

And Shades post below made me post something else about why I'd miss them. They have great potential. They just have changed into a company that's a shadow of what they were, and it's infecting the rest of their business.

I *still* use my tc1100 that I purchased a while ago. Why can't they make something as revolutionary now?

Shades · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2011, 01:29 PM »

Well, I still have a fully functional 10-year old HP laptop, which is still used several hours a day for playing (small) games, minor office work and an occasional movie. Their server room hardware was always very good. and HP LaserJet4 and 5 printers...rock solid.

So yeah, I would miss 'em.

cyberdiva · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2011, 01:59 PM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on August 19, 2011, 12:42 PM

Would anyone cry if HP disappeared altogether? I certainly wouldn't.

Well, I'll shed a few tears, since I still use my beloved PalmTX. Then again, HP hasn't provided much support for the TX. But then again, after a while, neither did Palm, so I was happy that HP bought Palm. Oh well....

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #6 on:** August 19, 2011, 02:50 PM »

I was more thinking of their consumer products:

expensive PCs (made with the cheapest components - I have had more HP desktops fail than any other make),
fairly nondescript laptops (filled with crapware),
terrible printers (slow, expensive to run, noisy, error prone and with the worst software ever - guaranteed to break under normal use)

They did such a good marketing job on Palm I hadn't even realised HP owned Palm - I thought it died years ago.

Renegade · « **Reply #7 on:** August 19, 2011, 02:53 PM »

I've always had good luck with HP printers.

allen · « **Reply #8 on:** August 19, 2011, 03:24 PM »

I'm mourning over the death of webOS, returning my [beloved] TouchPad this afternoon. HP is more than welcome to go away entirely. Damn Leo.

wraith808 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 19, 2011, 03:26 PM »

Quote from: Renegade on August 19, 2011, 02:53 PM

I've always had good luck with HP printers.

I have one that's 6 years old and is a network printer, and it just works. I had an HP Laptop, and I used it for years with no problems, and passed it down and it's still in use. And I'm still using the tc1100 as I said before. All consumer products, all very well done and in extensive use. Other than the price of their cartridges, I've nothing but good things to say about HP consumer products.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #10 on:** August 19, 2011, 03:48 PM »

You're lucky then - I have spent many hours uninstalling printer software, downloading new versions (often in excess of 300Mb) and reinstalling and on a number of occasions I have been forced to reinstall Windows because of HP software.

The printers themselves print pretty well but I haven't seen a consumer model that isn't slow and noisy.

I used to use HP printers but gave up in frustration and moved to Canon - fast, quiet and the software is lightweight and easy to use.

urlwolf · « **Reply #11 on:** August 19, 2011, 03:52 PM »

Maybe this is why:
HP Stock Price Falls 23% to 6-Year Low

Or is this a reaction of the market to them killing the one innovative product they had?
I went to a meego event (intel is the only backer, with nokia dumping it). Meego is prealfa, and quite honestly, it sucks. But it'd be great to have a competitor to iOS and android. In the right hands, it could be great. It's a real linux, running on atom. This is sad news, we are heading for a mono/duopoly on this tech... and this is not good for consumers.

40hz · « **Reply #12 on:** August 19, 2011, 04:03 PM »

Here's what HP has to say about it's decision regarding its Personal Systems Group.

Looks like the current plan is to spin it off as a new company - but with the caveat they may not ultimately complete this plan.

HP, like most companies these days, has become enamoured of the opportunities to be found in "cloud" products and services.

Apparently the corporate world felt they missed the boat by not jumping all over the Internet and web technologies when they first appeared. Because now, they all seem hell bent on not letting the cloud slip away from them like the web did.

A

urlwolf · « **Reply #13 on:** August 19, 2011, 04:16 PM »

Looks like webOS will survive, and will ship on better hardware:
"Currently, the party line internally to the company is 100% licensing to another hardware manufacturer. There are no talks of selling whatsoever. This is something that most of the employees working with webOS would welcome as the current hardware was not showing off webOS well at all. There have been some indications that this is the case, although HP CEO Leo Apotheker is keeping mum on the future of webOS, at least publicly."
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/08/19/an-inside-look-at-hp-killing-webos-hardware-here’s-how-it-really-went-down/

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #14 on:** August 19, 2011, 04:36 PM »

Hooo-ly Shit! Did not ses that coming at all. Hell, the sales manager just got back from an HP sponsored tech show that was specifically for the WebOS TouchPad!! (We're an HP ASP)

We've got a few thousand (business class) HP printers in the field and they've always been quite reliable. While as Carol mentioned their drivers can be a PITA if you strip off the software bundle they tend to work quite well.

I've never been a fan of their computers as they are mostly home user multi-media nightmares. But Kill the WebOS TouchPad! That's freaking Nutz!! We just got two to demo and they're not even out of their boxes yet.

Damnit! ...I was thinking about checking out the dev options.

40hz · « **Reply #15 on:** August 19, 2011, 05:00 PM »

ArsTechnica just weighed in:

Quote

One of our favorite acronyms is ditching another one: Hewlett-Packard wants to spin off its personal computers division in a dramatic move. Whatever the means—spin-off, direct sale, or "other transaction"—HP is done with this low-profit market. Yes, that announcement comes from the current leader in worldwide PC sales. Speaking of the commodity PC business during today's earnings call, HP CEO Leo Apotheker said "continuing to execute in this market is no longer in the interest of HP and its shareholders."

And that's not all. The company is also buying British data analysis company Autonomy in a $10.2 billion blockbuster deal and effectively shutting down what's left of Palm. You'd think that the third-quarter report that's due after the closing bell would be enough excitement for one day, but HP didn't think so.

There's a common thread running through all of these changes, and it all starts at the top.

...

Apotheker is very much a software man. Coming in from decades of enterprise software experience at German powerhouse SAP, Leo was thrown into a world full of hardware at HP. From PCs and printers to UNIX servers—and even a finger in Intel's Itanium design—the Palo Alto giant must have looked alien to a man of Apotheker's pedigree.

HP's board of directors knew this when they hired him. If the steering committee wasn't okay with a radical shift into software and services, they would have hired somebody else.

zridling · « **Reply #16 on:** August 19, 2011, 09:19 PM »

I played with it in the store several times and it was so slow it was ridiculous. Then the iPad was slow, too, for that matter. Still, I can't believe you bring the product out in the summer time, spend a zillion on ads and celebrity endorsements for it, and then kill it. Why bother making the thing in the first place if you didn't intend on even trying.

JavaJones · « **Reply #17 on:** August 19, 2011, 09:50 PM »

Did anyone *really* think HP buying Palm was going to work out? It seemed ridiculous at the time (to me at least), so I'm not surprised to see this happen. Sad? Maybe. But I can't help thinking, if Palm is so great, if WebOS is so great, why isn't it succeeding? Not to say it doesn't have some good ideas, but as a whole is it better than alternatives? Then again I think a lot of stupid things are being done in the mobile space right now (Nokia hitching their pony to Microsoft? Yeesh).

So much wasted time and money. I agree with Zaine - if you're going to just make a token effort, don't bother.

- Oshyan

wraith808 · « **Reply #18 on:** August 19, 2011, 10:30 PM »

The thing about it is it probably wasn't a token effort- just bad timing. I think it was the earnings overall more than anything else that caused it, and to please the stockholders that they were taking action, they had to make a complete direction shift, no matter how much they were throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

JavaJones · « **Reply #19 on:** August 19, 2011, 11:22 PM »

Honestly it didn't seem like a good fit from the beginning. But maybe that's just my opinion, heh.

- Oshyan

40hz · « **Reply #20 on:** August 20, 2011, 12:00 AM »

Gonna have to side with Wraith on that point. It was far from being a 'token effort 'no matter how you want to look at it.

But HP has a board who's dancing the jig so many US companies dance to please the investment analysts and mutual and hedge fund managers. It's a practice that's netted billions for the financial community and corporate officer's stock options.

But it's destroying the very companies that are playing this game. To say nothing of destroying employment opportunities, innovation, and long-term economic viability.

[attach]

worstje · « **Reply #21 on:** August 20, 2011, 01:23 AM »

I never cared about WebOS as I haven't been in touch with it. But given the fact people seem convinced it was a nice rival to iOS, I am sad. But given HPs history for total crapware in both the manufacturing and software bits for at least consumer products, I can only hate them more. HP servers might be their only good product.

40hz · « **Reply #22 on:** August 20, 2011, 11:12 AM »

I'm hopeful they'll eventually hand the source for WebOS over to the OSF.

But knowing the way corporate boards work, it will probably never happen.

Especially if a patent has been filed for anything (no matter how trivial, stupid, or obvious) that's found within it. Look how Microsoft is allowing FoxPro to wither and die of neglect rather than release it to a community that can (and would) do something with it.

I'm guessing WebOS will eventually be sold and end up in some IP troll's portfolio. $:-\$

iphigenie · « **Reply #23 on:** August 21, 2011, 09:31 PM »

first meego and now webos. Guess we're out of luck for getting mainstream devices with proper linux. i feel cursed.

As for the hardware, I am quite pleased with my HP mininote (the 2133, came with linux, although i replaced suse) and I had just bought an envy 14 which is a wonderful machine. before that i was unimpressed with the normal machines (servers are pretty fine)

And in the same breath they buy Autonomy. Madness.