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HP to Spin Off PC Business as Sales Stagnate

Confused

Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought this article was about HP spinning off its PC business and exiting its smartphone/tablet hardware business, not its smartphone/tablet OS business? I thought HP was spinning off its PC business in order to focus on smartphone/tablet OSes (and Cloud-related stuff)? So why is everybody waving goodbye to WebOS?
 
WebOS was going nowhere anyway. HP should have let it die with Palm.

The only cool factor it had was the hype that Palm was recreating their product line. Sure it had that card swiping multitasking, but that is very outdated at this point, and not very productive. It was cool 2 years ago but even now it's showing its age, far worse than iOS or Android. Not to mention the entire UI looks exactly like iOS, especially the mail app. the TouchPad was nothing but an iPad for all the Apple haters.

RIP TouchPad, most of us won't even remember you...
 
daneoni said:
Ugh...cant believe they're killing webOS. Why did this OS suffer from such horrible management. Now a great OS is just gonna die. HTC/Samsung please buy it.
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Unless I'm wrong, according to the article, HP plans to keep WebOS, just they are not going to build hardware for it. That is, unless I'm wrong.
 
What's up with all of these $9 billion + purchases lately?

I'm sad to see HP go away from hardware, after Apple, they were definitely my favorite makers :(
 
dashiel said:
I do hope someone buys WebOS. Maybe Google will and replace Android with a good OS.

Actually I could see Samsung or HTC snapping them up. Either of those would have to be absolutely nuts not to have a back plan to Android.
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Samsung has Bada and both Samsung and HTC have WP7. But maybe Samsung would like to add a forth OS to its portfolio...
 
Amazing Iceman said:
Unless I'm wrong, according to the article, HP plans to keep WebOS, just they are not going to build hardware for it. That is, unless I'm wrong.
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Thats just code for someone please come and license it...preferably buy it outright. In the mean time we'll keep it on ice/find a nice shelf for it.
 
OS X Dude said:
So, this is to say HP won't make computers, potentially? Or, that someone else will make them on their behalf but they'll still be badged as HPs?
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Yes. Texas Instruments ---> Acer, IBM---> Lenovo, HP ---> TBA

The question is, in 2011 is the PC hardware biz much of a biz that anyone will want HP's hardware line.

All these years and years Apple was damned for not licensing the OS, but it looks like Steve Jobs was right all along b/c Apple's Mac is the only PC in the world that isn't a commodity and can demand a 40% markup in the worst economic times since at least the 1970s.
 
for all the trolls saying that apple customers are sheep.... This just wasnt your day..

who wants to buy something that wont be around 5 years from now??!
 
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lifeinhd said:
Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought this article was about HP spinning off its PC business and exiting its smartphone/tablet hardware business, not its smartphone/tablet OS business? I thought HP was spinning off its PC business in order to focus on smartphone/tablet OSes (and Cloud-related stuff)? So why is everybody waving goodbye to WebOS?
Click to expand...

Straight from the horses mouth, but hidden in the Autonomy announcement...

http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...Discussions-Autonomy-Corporation-plc-Business

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.

Reading between the lines, webOS is dead!
 
wilhoitm said:
Straight from the horses mouth, but hidden in the Autonomy announcement...

http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...Discussions-Autonomy-Corporation-plc-Business

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.

Reading between the lines, webOS is dead!
Click to expand...

Let me rephrase that:

WebOS IS DEAD. AND SO IS ANDROID.

I remember when people used to ask me, in the late 90s, how I could stick with soon-to-be-dead Apple devices...where are those people now? ;)
 
maflynn said:
I am completely dumbfounded that HP would abandon webos so soon after purchasing palm. If I were an investor, I would be down right irate for squandering corporate resources and focus.

This spells the doom of the pre and tablet, nobody in their mind would want to spend money on a dead end product with no future. What few developers they have will flee the platform
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+1!

A $1,200,000,000.00 exercise in utter jackassery not including the fallout, as you point out, among the dev community. I feel for all the Pre (many) and TouchPad owners (apparently not so many).

Really too bad, as it was the one OS besides iOS that I respected. Had the first group of the Pre not suffered battery issues, I would have gotten one of them instead of being saddled with the Sprint HTC Hero.
 
wilhoitm said:
Straight from the horses mouth, but hidden in the Autonomy announcement...

http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...Discussions-Autonomy-Corporation-plc-Business

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.

Reading between the lines, webOS is dead!
Click to expand...

Irony is, I just bought a replacement Palm Pixi to last me until the iPhone 5 launch :p
 
BRLawyer said:
Let me rephrase that:

WebOS IS DEAD. AND SO IS ANDROID.

I remember when people used to ask me, in the late 90s, how I could stick with soon-to-be-dead Apple devices...where are those people now? ;)
Click to expand...

Did you kill them and bury them under your patio? You seem to mention things dying a lot.
 
eatmyjustice said:
If this turns out to be true, I think HP will only sell off it's consumer line. With the acquisition of EDS a couple of years ago HP is now one of the major players in the enterprise services space. IBM has already done the same thing... when they spun off the thinkpad line.
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Their aquisition of EDS made the Dell EDS supplied me even funnier...
 
You know what's really sad. Its the people that work at HP, who stuck by them when Palm was sold and now they're kicked to the curb
 
Cinch said:
Wonder how long it will be before Dell sells its PC division? I forgot that is the only thing they got, which for all intended purposes are made and supported entirely in China and India, respectively.
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The world would turn upside down if dell exited or spun off its PC and monitor divisions.

Also...I own stock in HP....this is pretty much a WTF moment for a lot of shareowners!
 
I hate to say it but HP ditching the hardware portion of WebOS seems like a bad idea to me.

Is it me or does every company so far seem to think licensing out their software/hardware instead of building the ecosystem like Apple, Nikon, Canon, etc do is a good idea?

WebOS was a solid runner for the smartphone industry, now it seems that Palm and HP have pretty much run it into the ground. IDK, maybe they should have just taken it all the way to the desktop/laptop . . . . like they said they would.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
The question is, in 2011 is the PC hardware biz much of a biz that anyone will want HP's hardware line.
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the PC hardware business world wide is far in excess of anything apple could ever cover, so yes, somebody - most likely SEA - will grab at the HP bundle.

Whether they maintain HP's leading position, who knows.

Because some people are not overly interested in padding Apples balance book, or like most people in the world, cant afford to pad apples balance book.

This has been a long time coming, with their previous CEO driving it hard this way, to the point no real change in management can alter the course. If the group who purcahses HP actually fronts up with quality as their first goal, rather than ripping the guts out of everything, there is potential for HP. Look at Lenovo, they are going great.
 
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