HP puts back webOS fate another month

HP's webOS decision meeting has led to a delay. New slips from the all-hands meeting to The Verge had CEO Meg Whitman saying that a final decision would come in three to four weeks. She saw the decision as an all-or-nothing proposition, where it might do little with webOS or commit to it in a "very significant way over a multi-year period," according to an account of the meeting.

"It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision," Whitman reportedly said.

The decision backtracks slightly from HP's promises to move faster on decisions than Apotheker, who was forced out partly for giving too long a timeframe to decide on the PC group and possibly throwing it into jeopardy. It may still give hope to the webOS team by suggesting that any commitment would lead to a fully revitalized group rather than one limited just to niche uses like printers and dual-boot PC environments.

It may be the first sign of a renewed attack on the mobile space. Under Hurd and later Apotheker, the webOS group got autonomy but also didn't get as much of the marketing and resource support many expected. The decision led to phones and tablets that arrived late or not at all, often without improvements in build quality beyond what Palm would have made before it was bought out.

By Electronista Staff

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