HP // Posts tagged as "HP"
HP CEO says webOS will be better than ‘fragmented’ Android and ‘closed’ iOS
Though Hewlett-Packard was unable to produce webOS devices that consumers were interested in buying — at a positive margin, at least — CEO Meg Whitman still thinks the beleaguered platform has legs. After unsuccessfully trying to sell or license webOS, HP decided late last year to donate its $1.2 billion platform to the open source community. The firm still plans to launch new webOS devices in the future, however, and Meg Whitman explained HP’s position while speaking with CRN. Read on for more.
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Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein leaves HP
Jon Rubinstein, the former CEO of Palm, has left HP. AllThingsD broke the news Friday afternoon, noting that Rubinstein had served his promised 12-24 month tenure with the company before leaving. “Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan told AllThingsD. Rubinstein led the team responsible for the original iPod and left Apple in 2006 to eventually join Palm as CEO in 2009. While at Palm, Rubinstein was responsible for, among other projects, the development of the Palm Pre and Palm’s webOS mobile operating system, both of which were transferred to HP in 2010 When it acquired Palm for $1.2 billion. HP has since open-sourced the mobile operating system after failing to gain traction with its Pre, Pixi, Veer and TouchPad products.
Former Palm execs say webOS was doomed from the beginning
HP recently made the decision to open source webOS, the mobile operating system it acquired when it bought Palm in April, 2010. While it’s arguable that HP was responsible for the demise of webOS, several former Palm executives told The New York Times that the operating system was doomed from the start. “Palm was ahead of its time in trying to build a phone software platform using web technology, and we just weren’t able to execute such an ambitious and breakthrough design,” former senior director of software at Palm Paul Mercer said. “Perhaps it never could have been executed because the technology wasn’t there yet.” Mercer explained that webOS relied too heavily on WebKit, which meant applications weren’t able to run as smoothly as they did on an iPhone. It also didn’t help that Palm wasn’t able to get a heavy developer following. A source speaking to The New York Times also said neither Palm nor HP could find the right engineers or leadership to help the platform take off and that there weren’t enough programmers to help build the OS. HP’s CEO Meg Whitman confirmed recently that new webOS hardware is still on the way, however, so perhaps the company has started to work out some of the operating system’s initial setbacks. Probably not, though.
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HP CEO confirms new webOS hardware on the way, tablets possible
HP announced on Friday that it will open-source its webOS mobile operating system, which once upon a time powered smartphones and a single tablet. Even though the company said quite some time ago that it was killing off it webOS hardware efforts, HP CEO Meg Whitman said in an interview with The Verge on Friday that HP plans to create new webOS-based devices in the future. “The answer to that is yes but what I can’t tell you is whether that will be in 2012 or not,” Whitman said when asked about the potential for new hardware. “But we will use webOS in new hardware, but it’s just going to take us a little longer to reorganize the team in a quite different direction than we’ve been taking it in the past.” Whitman declined to elaborate on what webOS devices HP plans to build, but she did say tablets are possible.
Read more on HP CEO confirms new webOS hardware on the way, tablets possible…
HP cuts its losses, makes webOS open source
Hewlett-Packard on Friday announced that is is contributing its webOS platform to the open source software community. The company confirmed that it would not build any new webOS hardware for the time being, though it said it would continue to actively develop and support the operating system. “WebOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable,” said HP CEO Meg Whitman in a statement. “By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.” HP announced in August that it was discontinuing its webOS hardware efforts and now, more than three months later, the company has finally decided the fate of the platform. HP took ownership of webOS as part of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in July 2010. The company’s full press release follows below.
What an open-source webOS means for Android
You might have heard — webOS just got open-sourced today by HP, joining the world of great, free software like Ubuntu, Firefox, and Android. It’s a pretty big deal for some people, including all those developers you see doing wonderful things with the software on their electronic devices. HP made the right decision here: let the fate of webOS be in the hands of those who know it best — like the fellows at webOS Internals. I’ll bet there’s one hell of a party going on in Oz this evening.
HP’s webOS joins Android in the land of open-source operating systems
Android just got a new friend in the open-source playground. HP today announced that the beloved-but-floundering mobile operating system will released to the open-source community.
“HP plans to continue to be active in the development and suppport of webOS,” the company said. Like the core Android OS, webOS will be made available under an open-source license.
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S&P cuts HP credit rating on lack of strategy, management turnover
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Hewlett-Packard’s credit rating earlier this week, citing poor policies, a high turnover rate among top executives and an unclear strategy. HP’s local and foreign long-term debt ratings now sit at BBB+, down from A, making it more expensive for the company to borrow money. The firm also cut HP’s short-term rating to A-2 from A-1. ”We have concerns that HP’s inconsistent growth strategies and high levels of board of director and senior management turnover have elevated the level of operational and execution risk in the near term,” S&P analyst Martha Toll Reed said in a statement. The agency also said that HP’s $10.2 billion Autonomy acquisition has reduced the company’s liquidity and financial flexibility. S&P’s press release follows below.
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Canalys: Apple set to become world’s top PC vendor next year
Apple is on track to become the No.1 PC vendor in the world next year according to new projections. Market research firm Canalys on Monday announced that it expects Apple to pass current top vendor Hewlett-Packard before the end of the first half in 2012. This estimate includes iPad sales however, while most firms omit tablets from their PC figures. Solid iPad sales propelled Apple into the No.2 spot last quarter according to Canalys, and it will overtake HP some time before July next year if sales continue to grow as expected. Read on for more.
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HP Windows 8 tablets arriving next year, CEO says; webOS future up in the air
During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, HP CEO Meg Whitman confirmed that her company will launch tablets powered by Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system next year. “One of my observations is that HP tries to do a lot of things,” Whitman explained. “And I am a big believer in doing a small number of things really, really well — set them up, knock them down, set them up, knock them down.” Whitman’s comments are in-line with recent rumors that suggested that Dell and HP would both launch Windows 8 tablets during the third quarter next year. As for webOS, the mobile operating system HP’s former CEO Léo Apotheker basically killed off: “I think from a webOS perspective that’s kind of the next piece of work to complete … The whole team of Meg, Cathie, myself, John Visentin are working very, very hard and as quickly as we can to make the right decisions about that product,” HP’s personal systems group executive vice president Todd Bradley said. “We are going to make a decision about the long-term future of webOS within HP over the next couple of months.”
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