Webos:It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones And The TouchPad

webOS was a proprietary mobile operating system running on the Linux kernel, initially developed by Palm, which was later acquired by Hewlett-Packard. Palm, HP, and most commentators and sources utilize the style "webOS", as shown in the adjacent logo, and in HP resources,\ rather than "WebOS".webOS was introduced by Palm in January 2009 as the successor to Palm OS with Web 2.0 technologies, open architecture, and multitasking capabilities.[citation needed] The first webOS device was the original Palm Pre, released on Sprint in June 2009. In 2010, HP acquired Palm; webOS was described as a key asset and motivation for the purchase.In February 2011, HP announced several new webOS devices, with various versions of the operating system, including the HP Veer and HP Pre 3 smartphones, running webOS 2.2, and the HP TouchPad, a tablet computer released in July 2011 that runs webOS 3.0. HP made the "difficult and, frankly, painful decision" that the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, and their "Plus" revisions, would not receive over-the-air updates to webOS 2.0, despite a previous announcement of an upgrade "in coming months."In March 2011, HP announced plans for a version of webOS by the end of 2011 to run within the Microsoft Windows operating system, and to be installed on all HP desktop and notebook computers in 2012.On August 18, 2011, HP announced that it would discontinue production of all WebOS devices. It has also confirmed that all development and potential licensing for webOS will be terminated.
It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones And The TouchPad:
In the hours leading up to their Q3 conference call later today, HP has just confirmed that they will be discontinuing operations surrounding the TouchPad and all webOS phones.To quote their press release
HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devicesspecifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.This news will come as a rather huge punch to the gut for webOS die-hards (myself included, though you can’t say that we couldn’t see it coming), many of whom have stood by the product for years — first in hopes that Palm would eventually launch a device worthy of the rather fantastic operating system, and later in hopes that HP’s acquisition of Palm would be the spark to the fire that just never seemed to light.On the upside, webOS itself isn’t dead — at least, not just yet. HP’s wording up above leaves things a bit vague, with at least two potential routes left open: licensing webOS to others, and sticking webOS in other, non-phone/tablet devices (HP has already mentioned plans to put it in printers and cars.) Until further notice, however, it’s essentially dead in the water.