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HP Delays WebOS Decision
itwbennett writes "Following Tuesday's report that HP is looking to sell WebOS, CEO Meg Whitman and HP employees gathered for a late-afternoon meeting. According to The Verge, Whitman told those gathered at the meeting 'It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,' adding that a decision would come in the next three to four weeks."
"a decision would come in the next three to four weeks".. and then a reverse decision every three to four weeks thereafter.
To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. ~ h2g2
This company's fucked. It's been bent over and pounded on by so many different 'short-term thinking managers' that I'd be surprised if it could walk in a straight line, much less maintain a consistent business strategy. If corporations were people, HP could file rape charges.
Somehow it all seems cursed. Assuming it has vestigial BeOS bits in it, the history includes having been shunned on Apple hardware, not bought out by Apple, then bankrupted by Microsoft's anticompetititve practices, firesold to Palm who evolved too late to make a difference, acquired with great promise by HP who failed to capitalize and finally made a rash decision in thinking it has no value. Can't it get a break from all the turmoil?
Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?
HP board is a bunch of retards that is determined to screw up a perfectly good company. I think it's time for rest of us to move on and let HP be.
As a WebOS user on the Palm phone, I will be sad if it dies. It seems a decent OS, and the only complaint I have about the phone is its hardware (bad keyboard, short battery life).
Any other users here?
Turning to HP, this week was their Board’s opportunity to solidify its reputation for incompetence and bad manners. They rose to the occasion.
http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/09/25/how-bad-boards-kill-companies-hp/
Someone fix /. already.
PS. Gassée's blog is the best I've read.
Have you guys seen theverge.com ?
For a bunch of geeks who left whatever site the left, in some sort of righteous exodus, they sure put together one shitty looking site.
I don't think I'll ever go back there again.
Total visual cacophony. Or cacorasi. I DON'T KNOW GREEK.
Thanks for posting that! I always liked Gassée and was wondering what he'd got up to.
Breakfast served all day!
I really wish i could understand the mentality of the sad mind that posts this stuff. What is the possible gain from this?
Good-bye
Oh look, and indecisive company who doesn't know what to do with an OS that consumers don't want. Why don't they just let it die and move on?
As a developer and longtime HP fan, I am encouraged that they have announced that they don't have an announcement, but that they will announce a future announcement at which time they will announce an event where they will announce a decision. Surely this will catapult them back into relevance!
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
open-source it, and license it freely as with Android. This will attract developers and grow the market for WebOS devices. It will do much more to remove doubts about the longevity of the platform, because it will no longer be in any one company's hands.
"The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
You're welcome - I'm glad I had people to share it with. I have zero geek friends, even on FB.
His posts on Apple have been great. He talks about Apples' BeOS vs Jobs decision with humility too.
"I'm really hoping that the bloggers can come to a consensus so I know what to do. I've never actually had to make a decision while in a leadership decision, and I'd hate to have that change now."
Really? You think that Leo made decisions like that without the board's approval? LOL! The board agreed with every last announcement Leo made. This wasn't a Leo issue, this was an "HP's board has no fucking clue what they're doing". They now keep making announcement like they have been with no action to test the waters of wall street. Do you really think these "rumors" about webos, the pc division, etc. are just rumors? They're being floated by HP marketing to watch the stock market to determine what to do. They literally have NO IDEA what they're doing. At this point they're just praying that they don't get murdered any harder than they have, because they'll ALL be out on their asses. To be quite honest, I can't believe they aren't all already out on their asses. The only reason they aren't is because the board and the executives of companies no longer actually answer to their investors; they answer to the hedge fund managers who control their real investors funds.
The real decision should be whether to open source it or not.
If they had a lick of sense, they'd give that a shot.
But they don't. And they won't.
Android really needs some competition...(and no, that crappy iOS doesn't count--I mean real, proper, open source OS competition).
expandfairuse.org
I bought a Veer, which I like but which also has some pretty blindingly obvious bugs and deficits. HP announced the WebOS hit 3 days after I bought this device. Pretty simple; if HP really abandons my brand-new phone them I'm not buying another HP product again, ever. They did the same thing to my OfficeJet 5500, fine, but only after I'd had it for five years. Not 3 bloody days.
Perfect quote. Thanks for that link, made great reading. Interesting site, as well.
Credit where due, at least Meg's almost on record about wanting to make a right decision. Could be a first. She seems to have been saying some of the right things recently (appearing thoughtful, balanced, realistic); it remains to see what comes of that.
D'you happen to know of a good study on why any innovative, successful company ends up a bad board? It doesn't seem to be a rare occurrence.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/11/08/webos-fate - "When you’re faced with a “we need to stop the bleeding” problem, you need a fast decision."
Fandroids hate facts.
'It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,' adding that a decision would come in the next three to four weeks."
Its a shame they didn't know that before killing the touchpad ... announcing that they are leaving the PC business ..... announcing that they are not leaving it ... and so on
I'm posting this as probably one of the last people who was still using a Palm Pilot. I only recently quit using my Palm Pilot because of the d--n Touchpad that I bought for next to nothing. I'm not in any way an HP fan, but this whole thing has me so disappointed. Let me get this straight, when I finally get ready to upgrade to a smartphone the nice OS that I've grown to love on the tablet that I bought on the cheap is probably dead? Maybe. Are you f--king kidding me? I buy one of your tablets (Thanks, Apotheker!); I grow to love the tablet; the tablet's simple interface which would be perfect for a phone is ALREADY ON A PHONE, BUT HP'S KILLING IT OFF? Maybe? Has anyone on the HP board even tried WebOS? I can almost, almost understand while Carly gutted the calculator line. Almost, since I've been using the same HP 32S for over 20 years, apparently oblivious to planned obsolescence and the need to sell me more s--t. But that's just it, they want to sell me more s--t. Maybe HP is psychologically incapable of making a decent piece of hardware that lasts and doesn't require expensive supplies (HP printer division, I'm talking to you).
I'm now essentially back to Android or iOS after having never considered WebOS until I used it, and it will probably be Android once I find the best phone for the best price which doesn't have too annoying a skin on it. Of course, since I'm not buying Apple there are CHOICES, and I'm going to have to actually "shop" for a phone unless I want to talk to phone salespeople. Sigh. If I had just bought a WebOS phone last year, I would be pissed that the OS was being killed off but at least I would have had a good year or two knowing that I could trade in my phone for a new one next year. Two years with a dying OS? That's a different story. If I had been an early adopter, I think that I would have been happier being hosed.
Make love, not reality television.
Sell WebOS. Even if HP decides that the OS has a solid strategic future, their release of the TouchPad only to can it in under two months will raise significant doubts in the mind of customers and developers.
What makes you think WebOS would be an attractive buy for anyone? Palm and HP both bungled it. It's hard for me to imagine some other company picking up the ball and running with it.
Righhhtttt, which is why the first thing out of Whitman's mouth was that Leo wasn't acting alone, and that she had no plans to change his plans for the company. If you think a CEO at a company that size makes announcements like that without board approval you simply have no idea how a company that size works. Leo wouldn't even legally have the ability to sell off ANY division of HP without board approval. What the hell makes you think a veteran CEO would make an announcement on plans he couldn't enact without getting approval first?
So how is waiting 2-3 weeks going to fix things? People are flocking away from WebOS because of it's lack of support, and with Android for Touchpads just around the corner, I feel HP's decision will be too late! They need to decide now, or the user base will decide it for them!
Another "me too": Thank you! Some great articles there
e.g.
This one reveals some interesting history between True Type -- Apple licensed TrueType FREE to Microsoft!?
http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/04/11/the-adobe-apple-flame-war/