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HP Discontinues webOS (Widespread $100 TouchPad sales)

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Futureman said:
wait... so the (incredibly small amount of) early adopters of the TouchPad are getting ROYALLY screwed? It's been on the market for what, like a month?? And they are already annoucning they are discontinuing it???
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yes, yes and yes
 
Guardian Bob said:
Sounds like they are massively scared about shareholders for some reason. If this were Apple, they wouldn't give a shit about shareholders.
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First off, Apple wouldn't take a $2.2 billion loss on a product in one year, that shows no future, but even if they toy with that option, they have over $70 billion stored up and lots of profit elsewhere to subsidize things. I think HP only has $12 billion or so, and they are not making as much money on PCs as they used to--they're talking right now about how 10% of their customers are related to state and federal governments and how the economic/political situation means they're not buying as much as they used to. And now they're talking about how people are printing less and relying on digital products, hurting their printer business.
 
Guardian Bob said:
Sounds like they are massively scared about shareholders for some reason. If this were Apple, they wouldn't give a shit about shareholders.
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In my opinion thats the best thing about apple.. but if that changes after steve they are screwed..
Hell at nokia they were more interested about share holders than what customers wanted and look where it got them..
 
So is the printer ink business that good?

What exactly does HP make their money from (or do they not anymore?)?

On a serious note and on topic, this is Meego's chance to get in there and shake things up.
 
Even the people on this Q&A don't seem to give a shit about webOS's death and are asking about printers instead.
 
https://twitter.com/#!/jaaksi/status/104307041681670144

@jaaksi
Ari Jaaksi
We will continue webOS platform full speed! #webOS
 
The lack of announcements for the last few products hinted at this time but still, so annoying. I was all set on the Pre3 for my next phone as I love the os and could do with a keyboard. Couple this with Nokia killing meego and sending the new device out to die and I have no current options for a new phone. I might have to try the first nokia wp7 with a keyboard.
 
Luckyman said:
https://twitter.com/#!/jaaksi/status/104307041681670144

@jaaksi
Ari Jaaksi
We will continue webOS platform full speed! #webOS
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See? Nothing to worry about. A mod should change the title.


e: The first WebOS question! Whoo!
 
Luckyman said:
https://twitter.com/#!/jaaksi/status/104307041681670144

@jaaksi
Ari Jaaksi
We will continue webOS platform full speed! #webOS
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Hey Jaaksi. The media and everyone else thinks WebOS is dead because of the poor wording of this earnings call.
 
Luckyman said:
https://twitter.com/#!/jaaksi/status/104307041681670144

@jaaksi
Ari Jaaksi
We will continue webOS platform full speed! #webOS
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infominister.jpg
 
5:49 pm Q: "My question is regards to PSG -- why not spin it off right now? And given that you're getting rid of webOS, will you still try to push webOS into the PC? Are you more aligned on Microsoft now?"

5:50 pm A: (Leo) "Let me try to answer this. What the board and management team has been working on is to look at all over our options, and we need to look at all of the strategic options. The announcement today will allow us to look much more closely... over time a decision will crystallize. That's all I can say right now.”

bullshit non answer

there’s more

A: (Leo) "Regarding the future of webOS, we are looking at all of our strategic options regarding
the software. The software has been received very well, everyone likes it. We will be looking at all possible business models, from licensing to any other possibility, to look at how to extract value from webOS."
 
A: (Leo) "Regarding the future of webOS, we are looking at all of our strategic options regarding
the software. The software has been received very well, everyone likes it. We will be looking at all possible business models, from licensing to any other possibility, to look at how to extract value from webOS."

See? WebOS still has a future.
 
samus i am said:
Can't wait to get a touchpad for 100 bucks.
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This . . . . anyone that finds any good sales should post it. I'd love to have a cheap HP touchpad for browsing the web, reading PDFs, etc. I don't care if it is a dead-end product since all I'm looking for is a cheap web browser tablet.
 
LCfiner said:
5:49 pm Q: "My question is regards to PSG -- why not spin it off right now? And given that you're getting rid of webOS, will you still try to push webOS into the PC? Are you more aligned on Microsoft now?"

5:50 pm A: (Leo) "Let me try to answer this. What the board and management team has been working on is to look at all over our options, and we need to look at all of the strategic options. The announcement today will allow us to look much more closely... over time a decision will crystallize. That's all I can say right now.”

bullshit non answer
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HP Deskjet 5060 Meth Lab, on sale this Fall!
 
TIMN already has an exclusive, wow.

An insider has given us details from an all-hands meeting HP just held with employees in the webOS Global Business Unit in light of today’s announcement that HP will no longer make webOS devices. In the meeting, webOS GBU VP Stephen DeWitt made it clear that HP intends to continue to work on webOS and likely intends to license it. DeWitt was adamant, saying several times “We are not walking away from webOS.” He detailed a plan to try to determine what the platform’s future will look like within the next two weeks, although he admitted that “Clearly, we don’t have all the answers today.”

In response to a direct question about licensing to HTC or Samsung, HP VP Todd Bradley pointed out that to date webOS is designed to work on a single set of silicon — Qualcomm — and that many potential licensees would likely want to see webOS support other chipsets. He did not elaborate further on potential partners.

DeWitt said that there would be staff reductions, but told the team that the company needs people “that are serious about winning” and again reiterated HP’s commitment to developing webOS as a platform. Both DeWitt and Bradley were clear that the current business model of webOS wasn’t working primarily due to lackluster hardware, arguing that HP needed to stop “trying to force non-competitive products into the market.”

In short, it looks like HP is committed to finding a partner or partners to license webOS. It’s not clear how the company will shuffle the division around given that it currently sits within the Personal Systems Group, which is slated to be be spun off.
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http://thisismynext.com/2011/08/18/hp-not-walking-away-webos-exclusive-details/

A $100 TouchPad with Android could be interesting.
 
numble said:
They can still make a profit if they sell off the patents, I guess.
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Interesting . . . maybe that is the plan.

Bundle up all the Palm patents, throw in a few HP patents, and put the bundle up for sale. That Nortel Networks patent sale brought in mad bank.
 
After what he just said 20 minutes ago (2.2 billion lost, 5 years of significant investments, very risky with no clear rewards) who in their right mind would want to license webOS?
 
Sean said:
After what he just said 20 minutes ago (2.2 billion lost, 5 years of significant investments, very risky with no clear rewards) who in their right mind would want to license webOS?
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No one. They would clearly have to be idiots.
 
Sean said:
After what he just said 20 minutes ago (2.2 billion lost, 5 years of significant investments, very risky with no clear rewards) who in their right mind would want to license webOS?
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Exactly, they're blowing smoke. Who would do this?
 
Ice cold. They must've hated Palm.

Q: How will you make webOS profitable?
A: (Cathy) We expect the dev expenses to come down dramatically -- down to 1 or 2 cents per share a quarter. If you look at the run rate losses there, you can attribute them pretty much to Palm.
 
Guardian Bob said:
WebOS is brand is damaged now. I don't think anyone would want to touch it.
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Exactly! Why would a company like HTC want to license webOS after seeing HP fail so hard? HP isn't even making sense right now.
 
I'm glad they're not delaying the podcast.
@joshuatopolsky: Boy is this podcast going to be nuts.

We need a thread for the podcasts, so that the five people that care about it, can discuss it!
 
numble said:
I bet it's Jon Rubinstein. Jobs will never take Rubinstein back since he's so buddy-buddy with Topolsky.
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I though he was an even bigger asshole then jobs, you put up with assholes that deliver you fire the ones that dont.
 
brotkasten said:
I'm glad they're not delaying the podcast.
@joshuatopolsky: Boy is this podcast going to be nuts.

We need a thread for the podcasts, so that the five people that care about it, can discuss it!
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I'll listen to it if The Joanna Stern is on it.

I love her so much. :(
 
brotkasten said:
I'm glad they're not delaying the podcast.
@joshuatopolsky: Boy is this podcast going to be nuts.

We need a thread for the podcasts, so that the five people that care about it, can discuss it!
Click to expand...
Buzz Out Loud will be fun tomorrow
 
Thank god I read this. I was JUST about to buy a Touchpad. I'm not an app-fiend like most people, and I've been really wanting a tablet for the convenience of web-surfing/email/basic net-based tasks...and for that the touchpad seems to work just fine, and I can't get over how elegant WebOS is.

Maybe this means places will be selling them for dirt-cheap now. If I come across one for less than 200, I'm sold.
 
VanMardigan said:
Except they'll just start a "who can tell a better joke" side discussion for 45 minutes instead of talking about the news or offering commentary. I want to like that podcast, but it can be really irritating since they try SO HARD to be funny. Especially Topolsky. They have such good viewpoints, but they waste SO MUCH TIME on dumb asides. ugh.
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It's better that way. If you want a boring tech podcast, listen to John Siracusa.
 
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