back to article HP plucks webOS team out of departing PC division

HP evidently sees a brighter future for its webOS platform after moving the team into the Office of Strategy and Technology (OS&T) as it figures out what to do with the software. The other half of the business HP acquired from Palm – the hardware element – will continue to reside in its Personal Systems Group that will likely …

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  1. Lance 3

    Way too late

    ""Reorganising the webOS software teams under OS&T allows us to fully investigate how we can utilise the webOS platform. The pan-HP charter of OS&T provides a broad view of how we can optimise our technologies," he said in the note."

    Shouldn't that have been done PRIOR to HP even buying Palm?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Eh?

      """Reorganising the webOS software teams under OS&T allows us to fully investigate how we can utilise the webOS platform."

      Haven't they supposed to have spent a year doing that already?

      Icon is a burning platform.

  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Alert

    Reaaranging the deckchairs on the RMS HP

    as it gently sinks beneath the waves into irrelvance.

    1. Lance 3

      Itanic

      Don't forget the reliance on the Itanic as well. If Intel kills it, what will HP really have? Software and no large iron hardware?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Unhappy

        Just another parallel with Nokia management

        "Hey HP, get rid of that PA-RISC architecture that your existing customers are happy with, bet your big-iron future on this new fangled Itanic instead - your success will be guaranteed!"

        Roll forward X years and with Itanic going nowhere, HP are up a creek without a paddle.

        Pretty much where Nokia will be in a couple of years as Windows Phone fails to set the world alight, assuming they still exist of course. Swap Intel for Microsoft, HP for Nokia.

        The only question is: did HP hire any former Intel execs before taking the Itanic pill? If so, that would be just too spooky...

      2. Thomas 4

        Itanic....Itanic....

        Why does that sound so familiar, given the context....

  3. Robert E A Harvey

    What I fail to understand

    Is why there are any boffins still there. I would have run the moment the product line was scrapped.

    1. auburnman
      Holmes

      Knackered economy

      Might as well draw a salary and print C.V.'s on the company printer while you jobhunt. Also there may be temporary staying on bonuses for talent regarded as high value. what I'd like to know is how many "doctor / dentist" appointments those boffins have had since the big announcement?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      And miss out on the sweet redundancy deal

      for the many years of loyal service that you may have been offered if you had stuck around a bit longer?

      Something tells me you're a million miles from being a "boffin".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And miss out on the sweet redundancy deal

        It's not always as simple as sticking around for a sweet redundancy deal.

        I jumped ship from my last employer when they announced a wind-down into closure. Many of my former colleagues played the 'I can't leave and sacrifice all the pay-out'. It turns out that pay-out equated to a little over two years' salary. That was three years ago and many still can't find work.

        1. chr0m4t1c

          @AC 8.58

          So you made the right choice in hindsight, but how would you feel if they'd got 10 years salary and walked into new jobs because the economy had picked up again?

          Everyone picks the option they think will be best at the time; a good few years ago a chap I worked with got made redundant at 62, but trousered a little over £100k and took a low paid charity job that he'd always to do in the past.

  4. ben_myers
    WTF?

    pan-HP or pan HP?

    Dare we pan HP for its handling of the whole Palm mess? Makes me wonder what they are going palm off on some unsuspecting buyer. Any buyer of HP's PC parts better do its due diligence, or it may find itself owning a lot of doo-doo... Ben Myers

  5. BristolBachelor Gold badge
    WTF?

    What?

    I can see a use for WebOS:

    The quick to start OS on a laptop so you don't have to wait for Windows to read War & Peace

    before you can surf, read emails, etc. (more suited to the PC division)

    The main OS on a netbook. Linux didn't go down that well on netbooks because it wasn't windows that people knew. However now that smartphones / tablets have iOS and Android that are not windows, and now that more is being done using cloud apps, maybe, just maybe it can work. (more suited to the PC division)

    Alternative for a lights-out processor. Only needs a puny ARM processor, but can still do quite a lot. (more suited to the PC division).

    WebOS in a HP that just sells software services that normally run on big iron or racks of servers? I must admit I'm a bit lost.

    1. Armando 123

      I get what you're saying

      But is there enough of a market for it to justify the cost? I know that amongst us of the geek/nerd mindset there is interest, but will enough of us buy it to justify the cost? Though I admit I don't have access to the numbers, I'm guessing it isn't.

  6. Peter Holroyd
    Unhappy

    Who's in charge

    The good engineers will leave but those in charge who delivered a pile of junk will remain to build another pile of junk.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      I do not think WebOS is a pile of junk

      Maybe you are right that good people will leave, but WebOS is interesting. The big question is what to put it on. If HP can license it to hardware makers they could be on to something. Do not forget that there is a far bigger profit (margin) to be made on software than on hardware.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Headmaster

        Just an idea

        but perhaps HP could become OEMs, just do a deal with HTC, Samsung or similar to by their hardware in bulk lots, slightly rebadged as Hp/WebOS phones and tablets.

        HP get decent hardware without the R&D costs other than porting and supporting the OS on the various models chosen.

        The company who makes the hardware gets the advantages of higher volumes which usually equates to lower costs, and even if it hits their own sales a bit they still make money.

  7. Stu 18
    FAIL

    no one uses pcs anymore

    oh, well apart from creating all the content, managing all the business, accounting, etc. But our boxes look so crap even tha mac rip-offs. Lets sell that division, then we can buy apples - they look so cool. We can then generate the same income with a fraction of the staff by being patent trolls. I hope the people buying the hardware don't realise that we'll ping them for our patent on black plastic boxes....

    1. Rovindi
      Windows

      @Stu 18

      Does the 18 denote age or IQ?

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