Gadgets

RIP: HP TouchPad, HP Pre & webOS

Abe Olandres August 19, 2011 · 2 min read

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In a shocking announcement today, HP posted a press release that it will be abandoning operations of all webOS-related products, which includes the HP Pre, HP Veer and the HP TouchPad.

That’s probably the reason why HP dropped the price of their tablets the other week.

The release, posted earlier today, states:

HP today commented on the recent announcement by Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU.L). HP confirms that it is in discussions with Autonomy regarding a possible offer for the company.

HP also reported that it plans to announce that its board of directors has authorized the exploration of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG). HP will consider a broad range of options that may include, among others, a full or partial separation of PSG from HP through a spin-off or other transaction.

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. {source: HP}

HP bought Palm in April of 2010 and by February of 2011 announced the HP TouchPad and the HP Pre & Veer.

It seems too quick for HP to ditch their webOS devices but slow sales of their tablets might have prompted this decision.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

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124 Comments

techguy · 15 years ago

It’s much better than buying a ‘china tablet’. If you are no looking for new apps or just wants to have a tablet then this is for you. Too bad it’s gone.

Edwin C · 15 years ago

And you think you’re funny?

HP Nova · 15 years ago

Latest News:
Good news: HP announced 2 million touch pad sold in less than 8 hours.
Bad news: Already out of stocks in each store you go.

cyb · 15 years ago

“HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward”

Again, I repeat. Obviously the headline is wrong. The devices are dead, BUT THE OS —NO. More likely it will be licensed to other companies

Cyber Akuma · 15 years ago

OMG Now it’s on supersale for only $99, http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/let-the-liquidation-begin-hps-16gb-touchpad-on-sale-for-99/

Curious Phantom · 15 years ago

Guys, just wanna share a really interesting blog post… Is Apple the culprit behind all this? Hehe read and be enlightened. http://storyware.blogspot.com/2011/08/epicenter-of-post-pc-world.html

pregnancy tests · 15 years ago

What will happen to palm business that they bought?

I think they will sell it.

devon · 15 years ago

Medyo di nga maganda mga magcomment ni BUGOK… Ayan ang mahirap satin eh pag nasusupress ka, defense mechanism ang ‘freedom’. Di porke’t may freedom tayo to express ourselves eh aabusuhin mo na tulad nalang ng mga comment mo BUGOK. Sana may respeto ka parin sa ibang tao dito.

William T · 15 years ago

Too bad. Palm OS user since Palm IIIe days. Hold on to my Palm Centro for the longest time, but 3G forced me to upgrade to a Nokia 5800, then migrated to Android, mainly because the first Palm Pre are CDMA.

Todd Bradley is one of those who led Palm to near its doom in the Palm, Inc days, now as a VP at HP, he will again lead it into oblivion…

Palm had it’s chance, if only they could execute their business plans. Palm OS5 was neat, but no multitasking… but so is iOS3. Then WebOS matched iOS in most aspects and more, but HP took so long, to come out with devices, and the rest will soon be history…

Still those patents is still worth a lot, and HP might still make some money off it.

Here’s hoping Samsung will buy WebOS, they have the resources, and the capability to market it and carve market share for it. Android owes a lot to Samsung and it’s trailblazing Galaxy line in siphoning sales away from iOS, and I, for one, will definitely buy a WebOS device, if it’s from Samsung…

ICe · 15 years ago

Sir samsung has its own BADA-os, i think its being disregarded by most of us, dahil concentrate tayo sa IOS – Android – WP7/8 kung bibilhin pa nila webOS redundant na kc their own os is hanging by the thread na.

Ederic · 15 years ago

Ito ang malungkot na balitang nagisnan ko kaninang umaga, Abe. Ni hindi pa nga ako nakakabili ng kahit isa sa webOS devices — hindi na sila nakarating sa Pilipinas. :-(

daniel · 15 years ago

dami naman na kasi ng OS. WP7, iOS, Android. tama na. hahha wala naman kayong apps at variety ng phones eh. May talo at laging panalo… sorry nataon kayo ang TALO! hahaha peace

21 · 15 years ago

Low public interest. WebOS is a great platform. I think it’s better than Android and wp7.

Jenx · 15 years ago

Sayang talaga. Maganda talaga ang magic ng WebOS. Kung ende ka techy talaga, di mo maiintindihan. Thats the reason why mas pop yung mga simple gadgets sa ibang masa ngayun kaya humina ang WebOS. I all knew all of their stuffs. Hope they just develop it more at the right time, rather than RIP. ;((

Nick · 15 years ago

Oh well… From what I’m seeing around me it’s either the iPad or some 7-inch Android-powered tablet.

Jazz · 15 years ago

I just bought an HP dm1 ultraportable. I’m not sure how I feel about the likely spin-off of their PC division. Haha. I remember how odd those ThinkPads looked when they started sporting the Lenovo logo.

Tech n Stuffs · 15 years ago

woah! ano nang nangyari sa HP? closing the webOS platform and related stuffs is acceptable since Android and Apple are continuously dominating this area. pero bakit pati young “entire” PC division?

Iyan Sommerset · 15 years ago

Good riddance. AFAIK HP is downscaling to its enterprise-level customers, giving up the whole laptop-pc-tablet-etc market. Kinda like what IBM did a few years ago (and we consumers won with a semi-quality brand like Lenovo). Except from experience, HP consumer products are utter *crap* and their customer service is worse. I’m the “proud” owner of one of the dreaded Pavilion dv series…and I’ve despised HP ever since. Hell, in a recent blog post, wasn’t HP awarded the top prize in “most faulty laptops ever”? There you go.

Fat chance anything good will come out of this though. Palm may be spun-off/bought back into its own thing, someone’ll try and pull a Lenovo with the laptop/pc market, and they’ll try to stick WebOS into consumer products (GPS/tv/etc) but I doubt any of those will really fly.

I don’t even know if they’ll do well with the corporate/enterprise-geared restructuring. Most companies I know that actually use HP-UX have been moving to x86-Linux-based systems.

I wonder if they’re keeping their printer division.

philippines news · 15 years ago

Hi Yuga ,

Electronics retailer Harvey Norman Stops Selling HP TouchPad after this news released

Ronald · 15 years ago

Hi Yuga.

Note also that it’s not only the webOS devices that they are closing. They are ending their /entire/ PC division and considering to spin it off fully. Woah!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14584428

Just a leak · 15 years ago

Just to inform you that these are all RUMORS… A plan has already been laid and these things are not one of those… Furthermore, it is a site that HP is not associated with…

if you might wonder I am an HP employee.

Les · 15 years ago

Sayang, all they have to do is put Android in their tablets and smartphones kasi yun ang gusto ng mga tao ngayon. HP is a good brand, what I like most is yung printers nila, monitors and desktop PCs. Wag na sana nila idamay ang PC Division nila.

jonaflormicfren · 15 years ago

It’s normal that if nothing good happen to the present venture, you switch to another.

Paul · 15 years ago

It’s not just their WebOS stuff, they’re also considering spinning off their PC consumer division. Desktops, laptops, printers, etc.

This is big news, it’s not unlike when IBM sold off its PC hardware business to Lenovo.

ICe · 15 years ago

kc naman sa commercial ni manny “But i dead” yan tuloy na dead ang hp lol..

Pier · 15 years ago

Manny’s comprehension is not enough for the HP mobile products to survive.. :P

lilboyblue · 15 years ago

dont you think it’s also because HP is one of microsoft’s biggest partners and HP coming up with their own OS was a littl slap on the butt on their long-standing partnership since way back when?

I’m not really sure, I have nothing to back this up but it could be a possibility.

sylv3rblade · 15 years ago

HP bought WebOS from Palm.

lilboyblue · 15 years ago

i know that lol.

what i’m getting at is that HP laptops, pc rigs, etc have been carrying Windows OS for a very long time now, and HP not putting a windows OS in their tablet might have ticked off microsoft a bit.

Again, i’m just speculating. hehe

sylv3rblade · 15 years ago

Unlikely. They just bought an enterprise software company and will likely focus their efforts in that space. If you read other sources, some are indicating that HP is contemplating dropping their PC business (laptops, desktop, tablets, etc) altogether.

lilboyblue · 15 years ago

ooooohhhhh. now that’s very interesting. I haven’t been able to update myself lately with what’s happening. Thanks for the info.

Looking forward to seeing how things develop for these big players.

lilboyblue · 15 years ago

guess they should stick to printers. lol :p

brix · 15 years ago

There needs to have a moderator to edit/delete such irresponsible comments specifically BUGOK. As the name implies thism person is a rotten egg that must be censored and not seen here. He is such a gadfly thats needs to be extinguished. Get a life Bugok.

LG Promo Victim · 15 years ago

the internet should not be censored!
the right to express themselves is the basic right of all human beings on this planet and the moon

censorship is a form of human rights violation!

Bugok Ka! · 15 years ago

@brix – Heto pa isang bugok. Paenglish english pa, eh mali mali naman grammar… aray ko po!

Di mo ba nakikita pag may linyang kulay pula sa ilalim nung word na tinatype mo? Ikaw ang mag “git a layp” bobo!

Faust · 15 years ago

talent fee paid for pacquaio haven’t paid off. yay

jonas · 15 years ago

ano na mangyayari sa mga nakabili ng mga gadgets nila at gumagamit ng webos?

sesmiager · 15 years ago

support will still be given to those devices. We still even cater technical and manufacturing support to our legacy devices [e.g. palm treo, centro]… only the manufacturing has been halted to further consolidate our resources to our new project…

Just a leak · 15 years ago

hope this makes things clear…

mike · 15 years ago

the only one I know who bought.this crap is.the owner of.this blog. Really gives meaning.to the word ‘credibility’

crissy · 15 years ago

jealous much? just hit the close button.

lilboyblue · 15 years ago

troll. lol

dude, it’s his job to buy them, try them out, write stuff about them for everyone to be informed. :)

gabriel · 15 years ago

Ugok ka kase. Wag ka na lang magbasa dito.

RaGe · 15 years ago

so what’s ur point then Mike?

doorsdown · 15 years ago

hahaha tong si mike isa sa mga hindi napalaki ng tama ng magulang nya.

sabi ni wikipedia

Envy (also called invidiousness) is best defined as an emotion that “occurs when a person lacks another’s (perceived) superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.”[1]

garz · 15 years ago

Paano mo naman nasabi na bumili nito si Abe? For what I know, he gets these gadgets for reviews then returns them afterwards..

And in relation to the topic, HP really gambled on this one. They even bought Palm! Poor decision.

NeedTextMate · 15 years ago

0935******* Text me :D

Benchmark · 15 years ago

nasobrahan ng punch ni Manny…ayun KNOCK out din ang WebOS ng HP! hahahaha

Peter Betos · 15 years ago

Asan ka na ngayon, Manny Pacquiao?!!
Magkaka-US endorsement ka na nga lang pinatay mo pa yung produkto!! :P

leeto · 15 years ago

Hoy bobo. inggit ka lang kay Manny. Kung wala kang masabi dahil bobo ka, manahimik ka na lang.

Filipinoglobalpost · 15 years ago

I think only few are interested in this product. Mahirap talaga talunin ang Apple. Their Ipad is great.

Bugok Ka · 15 years ago

Bugok! Hindi iPad ang lumamon sa webOS kundi Android! Parang may low pressure area diyan sa ulo mo ah. Lakas ng hangin!

Digest · 15 years ago

^
May pinagdadaanan ka tol? hahaha

ICe · 15 years ago

i agree with bugok. android market ang nagpabagsak sa hp coz android also got the pang masa target market.

Cliff Rosario · 15 years ago

i’m both an android & ios user pero according to analysts “Apple singlehandedly knocked HP out of the PC, smartphone and tablet business,”Â

from associated press link:

In nod to IBM, HP overhaul minimizes consumers

http://m.apnews.mobi/ap/db_6724/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=terMc279

Kungsabagay · 15 years ago

alam nyo ba na ang galit na galit sa apple product ay yun mga hindi makabili?

alam nyo ba na ang galit na galit sa mga apple fanbois ay mga hindi pa nakakagamit ng apple product at nakatry lang or nakahiram lang at meron na kaagad na overall judgement?

alam nyo ba na galit na galit ang mahihirap sa mayayaman dahil… dahil… hindi nila alam – akala nila mayayaman ang reason kaya sila mahirap hehehe

yan alam nyo na.

cyb · 15 years ago

Ang mga taong galit sa Apple yung hindi makabili? LOL

Have you ever stopped and think na there are a lot of disgruntled Apple users. I was once hooked on this device. Now I saw the light it’s nothing but overrated products. My friend just bought a very expensive Mac Book Pro … now he is regretting every sluggish bout with this shitty device

cyb · 15 years ago

iPad gave it some tough competition… but kill it — I don’t think so.

There 2 major factors that killed it.

Short-sighted executives who did not gave it a chance. Itook Android 2 years to beat iOs phones. Windows phone is still struggling but at least MS is committed. Aside from that they don’t have much financial power to stay in the game for the long haul.

–Microsoft– with Windows 8 around the Corner– one variant will run a full OS that can run desktop application (optimized, unlike windows 7). HO and MS are long time partners. And HP devices are know for their MS OS. They feel that the MS package comes complete with ecosystem and tech updates and all

Kungsabagay · 15 years ago

to each his own. i am an android user myself and to be honest i really like most of its functionality specially the widgets and notification system which the latter will soon be available with iOS 5. a copy i know, but heck if it works, then do it.

apple’s app execution is just way better, at least with their iphones and ipads and when jailbroken, opens up a whole lot of possibilities.

i have 3 windows 7 laptops (not netbooks. for my wife, my daughter, and myself). i have a samsung galaxy s running gingerbread, my wife has an iphone 4, my daughter an ipod touch 4th gen with all the apps i want for her. i haven’t purchased a single macbook. I know what i’m talking about.

again, to each his own. if it works for you then stick to that but i’m definitely replacing my android phone with something else

Cliff Rosario · 15 years ago

@Kungsabagay: hahaha.. at hindi ko mapigilan tumawa.. rofl..

I had my iPhone 4 for 2 years now.. my first after decades of Nokia’s and Sony Ericsson’s… and I got a Samsung Galaxy S2 during it’s launch here..

Seriously.. both have flaws..

iOS’ too limiting software environment and heck the iPhone is such an introvert, it doesn’t share a lot of compatibility with some smartphones .. & that’s just naming a few but every tiny feature that Apple promised.. they delivered.. plus iOS is a pretty reliable platform.. I’ll recommend it even to corporate users if they do have a choice aside from BB.. ( I work for a global payroll company and we do have a mobile payroll app that runs on iOS)

For Android, It’s been getting some bug issues or rather a virus with some of the apps.. that’s why I haven’t rooted it with custom roms, I can’t track my phone using SamsungDive while Apple’s Me.com is working perfectly well each and everytime.. But the Galaxy S2 is so fast.. I already have HSPA+ signals in Eastwood and Cubao area.. some in Makati.. and the fact I can play divX movies and other video files without converting it is such joy.. lol..

So to each his own nga naman as per @Kungsabagay..

Regarding HP’s move..

I used to work for Dell computers and my sister still works for HP laptop support… we talked about this news and we both agreed it’s HP’s CEO Apotheker choice to follow IBM’s steps.. He did worked for SAP AG.. kaya forte niya ang Business Software Solutions..

Going back to the iOS and Android supremacy discussion.. I’m satisfied with both.. it all depends on your cup of tea..sa susunod nga lang.. before mag post ng mga di masyadong napagisipang post.. eh.. make sure you have enough background sa subject… like @Kungsabagay may extensive use naman na when it comes to these two platforms.. bago mag react.. it just looks stupid when you’re very opinionated but not well informed..

Aypol 4 · 15 years ago

Sir 2 years nyo na po gamit iphone 4 mukhang yan yun engineering unit na Binili ng Gizmodo release date sa us ng iphone 4 is june 24, 2010
sa June 24, 2012 pa magiging 2 years yan =)

Cliff Rosario · 15 years ago

@Aypol 4 .. toinks.. you’re right.. I messed up the dates. I’ll celebrate pa lang it’s first year next month.. since I got it through Globe.. lol.. thanks dude for shaking my head about that..