HP murders webOS tablets, phones

Confirms PC biz spinoff 'discussion'

By Cade Metz, 18th August 2011

HP has announced that it will discontinue its webOS TouchPad and webOS phones, just weeks after the arrival of the TouchPad and a little more than a year after the company acquired the webOS mobile operating system from Palm in a $1.2bn purchase.

In a press release floated before the company's quarterly earnings call, HP also confirmed that it is considering a spinoff of its PC business. In April, the company announced that it would bring webOS to PCs as well as new mobile devices.

Separately, the statement confirmed that HP is in discussions to buy enterprise software company Autonomy. The HP homepage, however, clearly says that the company is "to acquire Autonomy":

HP homepages as of 1pm Pacific time on Thursday

Earlier today, Bloomberg News reported that HP would be acquiring Autonomy for $10bn, and when contacted by The Register, the company declined to discuss the report, which also said that HP would spinoff its PC business.

"HP...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," read Thursday's press release from HP.

"In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones."

The company said it would "continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward."

This week, AllThingsD reported that US retailer Best Buy is sitting on about 250,000 unsold TouchPads, and HP had slashed the price of the tablet in hopes of selling more units.

In its press release, HP said that its fiscal third quarter revenues reached $31.2 billion, up from $30.7 billion a year ago. This is less than Wall Street analysts anticipated, and they will also be disappointed with HP's fourth quarter forecast, which puts revenues between $32.1 billion to $32.5 billion.

HP announced that its total fiscal 2011 revenue will be $127.2 billion to $127.6 billion range, which is less than its previous estimates: between $129 billion and $130 billion. ®

Update: This story has been updated with additional info from HP's press release and HP.

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Highly Rated

Posted Thursday 18th August 2011 19:58 GMT

NoneSuch

Brilliant.

Send 270,000 tablets to Best Buy, not have them sell well and instead of supporting your product with better advertising and offers you simply cancel the line.

This is the problem with corporations today. No instant profit? Let's move onto something else then.

Posted Thursday 18th August 2011 20:04 GMT

mafoo

Wow

Wow, really, wow.

What was the point in buying palm?

Seems slightly extreme to cut your losses so soon after their first webOS product bombed, especially as they are about to release the TouchPad 4G - is anyone going to buy that now knowing its already dead in the water.

Oh well.

Posted Thursday 18th August 2011 21:34 GMT

Jemma

I thought the platform was supposed to be burning...

*before* you jump off it into the fire...

I mean seriously, how many idiots can you get in one industry?

Google & Android depending on whom you listen to have either just kicked Apple in the nads so hard Steve Jobs balls are dangling from his ears like designer earrings... Or theyve committed ritual suicide.

Apple are on the verge of realising that the collection of 12 year olds that bought the first iPhone are now older and want to be able to *use* that phone their own way, with their own decisions. Not to mention privacy of data.

HP spend massive amounts on WebOS, and brought out credible and well accepted products. And then waited until their competitors are doing a maclaren and fighting amongst themselves. And then killed their only offering stone dead. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Not to mention the chaps at Nokia... Ooh, we arent as pretty as the others, lets run round in circles flapping our hands, and hire someone from the doyenne of mobile devices. Microsoft - whose current offering has about as much chance of success as Elphinstone has of getting gazetted with the VC. Then, in a display of comedic ineptitude unrivalled in the annals of smartphone design, lets release arguably our best smartphones with an immediately prospective UI update that solves the popularity/UX issues and to put the tin hat on it, we'll kill that OS and its universally acclaimed successor to boot. And then, bitch about poor sales.

Honestly, where on the planet do they find these people? Other companies spend their time trying to avoid bankrupcy. This lot seem to run leap and vault towards it as if its the ambrosia of the Gods and world domination combined.

You know, if someone tells me tomorrow that HP have sold WebOS to Nokia I wouldnt be in the least surprised. It beggars belief that anyone so apparently gormless can make it to the level of executive without being found out.