[Rumor] HP to Pull the Plug on webOS?

Man, it stinks to write that headline. Now please everyone, be calm. This is a rumor. The Guardian reported, and several tech sites have picked up on this, that HP is planning to shut down operations on webOS – software and all.

HP said in a statement yesterday that they would not indeed be spinning off their PC manufacturing division and stated that they are not out of the tablet market. They did say that they will continue their relationship with Microsoft and pursue the Windows 8 platform. We ran a piece earlier about HP testing Windows 8 on TouchPads as a proof-of-concept.

What Meg and friends did not say definitively was what will become of webOS. Whitman did say that they will continue to examine…yadda yadda…. and come to a decision – wait for it – in the coming months. The Guardian piece suggests that an HP insider (unsourced) claims that that will happen not so much int he coming months, but in the coming weeks or even days.  Says the source – “There’s a 95% chance we all get laid off between now and November, and I for one am thinking it’s for the best,” who presumably has another job already lined up.

This would affect the other 500 employees who were not laid off when HP foolishly shut down their webOS hardware division months ago. Where those employees will go – be it to other places in the company, or on their merry way to other opportunities remains to be seen.

As for HP’s plans with webOS should the axe fall? There’s even less to go on here. We at webOSRoundup are strong advocates of the “open source” model. If you’re not going to work with it, give it to those who can. Open sourcing webOS would certainly not attract any big name developers, and would relegate it to a hobbyist platform, but it would allow for advancements to be made by rock stars like WebOS Internals or Canuck Coding.

While we adore those guys and everything they do, we hope that HP can manage to sell or license webOS to a company that will work with the platform. It would seem increasingly unlikely at this point, but perhaps if HP was willing to accept more of a loss, then something would be better than nothing. We have no idea what stalled any of the talks with potential suitors, but we hope that HP realizes that while it may not be 1.2 billion, perhaps a percentage of that might help investors accept the loss more readily. [The patents alone are worth close to that... - Ed]

Unless of course talks with all suitors have stalled because HP is insisting that whoever buys it, develops it. In which case – good on ya, HP.

Now it’s time for the disclaimers. This is a rumor, from one publication. Some rumors end up being 100% correct, but, in this case there is nothing concrete. All the other news sites reporting this are referring back to the same article. You know, kinda like what we’re doing. We’re not saying this would be a major surprise nor that the writing hasn’t been on the proverbial wall, but we have nothing official here.

Please also remember, there is an official member of HP’s developer relations team, Lisa Brewster a.k.a @Adora, that is maintaining a website with constant updates about the status of webOS. Check it early and often.

Our best advice is given by @adotx - Keep Calm, and Carry Palm.

Source: The Guardian