WebOS (almost) Killed Off
 

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/18/its...-the-touchpad/

HP Kills Off webOS Phones And The TouchPad

Brace yourselves, webOS fans.

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 devices, specifically 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.

Pour one out for webOS devices tonight, my fellow geeks.

Update: HP’s Stephen DeWitt says “We are not walking away from webOS.” They will continue efforts to advance and perhaps license the OS, but its life as we have known it is certainly over.

amost?

Kind of disappointing. I mean, I don't personally use it, but it's sad when a competitor is killed off. Hopefully the fire of the Android/iOS battle will keep them both innovating.

The Touchpad had no camera, sdcard, HDMI, or USB with buggy software installed. It should be no surprise that it failed against more feature-rich tablets.

Seriously? That thing was doomed to fail.

Wow, that is just terrible. From the reports I read they were trying to make money off of software, so maybe they will license webOS. Which might even work better for them now depending on what Google does with Motorola.

Technically, the OS itself isn't being completely abandoned. They just don't know WTF they're going to do with it.

Correction: The Touchpad did have a micro-USB port, but it was still doomed from the start.

Is Amost in anyway related to Anus?

The most troubling about this news, in my opinion, is the fact that the WebOS GUI is far superior to both Android and iOS. Hopefully, HP will license it Samsung, HTC, and other companies that will actually build decent hardware for it to run on.

Android now has the GUI guy from WebOs and the first full release under his watch will be Ice Cream Sandwich.. unfortunately I think it will be a "bastard" release that is more of a stepping stone to get to what he is shooting for. I was hoping for A LOT more from him by now but apparently it's slow going.

Yeah, they said they might also sell off their PC side also and go the route of IBM..

Heh...took me until now to figure out wtf this was about. I = dumb.

Yeah, I always scratch my head when a company sells off a good chunk of its business, when it is pretty profitable. Makes me wonder if it is management by the margin, if we can't match the margin of apple then we just shouldn't try. Wonder how many 1000's of Americans will lose their jobs on this when some Chinese company buys the PC business.

That's what happens when you loose $200-$300 on every PC you sell. The only person that wins is the consumer. It just isn't a sustainable business model no matter how much money you are making on your ink cartridges.

I just bought an HP PC a few weeks ago. Didn't that help?

It had a front facing camera

If I remember correctly, execs at both HP & Palm were buddies so HP decided to buy them rather then see them fall to bankruptcy. Well, yah good deal since HP spent millions/billions after trying to launch this failed garbage. Glad the friend/friends made some money off this.

Considering HP wants to get out of the PC business, maybe maybe not.

That's a shame. I was one of those loyal WebOS folks. It was far and away the best interface on a phone I've used.

It'll get buried now.

The multi-tasking was far and away the best on any smart phone. Still is. Blackberry ripped their card system on their latest os.

The only hope for webos is that HTC or Samsung will decide that they dont want to make Androids anymore because they would be supporting their competitor Motorolla/Google. HP could then license the os to them.

Just bought a touchpad for 93 bucks using an hp academy thingy. Look on slickdeals.

edit: It's $100 at target now too.

Just got the 32gb from Office Depot for $149

Trying to decide if I want to try to track one down in store or if they'll all be sold out by now.

Im pondering it to, everywhere online is gone

Wife went to a couple of places and no dice.

Having used all three, I can easily say that WebOS is the best OS of all of them. It's so elegant to use - it's like silk. Android and iOS are very clumsy in comparison. It's just a shame that they never focused on getting WebOS a full array of competing hardware the same way Android has.

I like Android - it's got so many apps, it's almost ridiculous, but I'd move back to WebOS tomorrow if I could put it on a landscape slider like the HTC Evo Shift.

totally agree. I bought a dual core android phone when I realized sprint would not carry the newest webos phones.

I really missed webos. I bought four 32g touchpads at sam's club this morning. I'm loving this tablet, but it really makes me wish even more that they'd have put some decent phones out.

Best Buy is hit or miss right now. Some are selling them while others are still claiming they are OOS. Topeka has been saying since yesterday they are OOS.

Technical superiority often has nothing to do with which company wins a technology war. The OS/2 operating system was far superior to Windows back in the 1990s, but Microsoft ate IBM's lunch.

If WebOS does die, its best features will eventually wind up in Android and IOS.

Microsoft is now offering free windows 7 phones, dev training any any other tools they want to WebOS devs.

Good play by MS

I don't buy that at all. Universal search, the card system and the gesture pad will not be in iOS or Android any time soon.

I know this much, it's going to be probably a decade before I buy an HP product.

I am seeing them pop up on Craiglist for $200. Worth it?

No.. Try to find one for $99
Dont support the people that go to the local store - buy them all up and then try to sell them for 2x or more the cost to unsuspecting folks on CL

I doubt the card system will be, but the gesture pad and universal search could very well be added to Android soon.

I bought 2 from the HP small business site for $99 each. One for me to play with and the other for my son.

Anyone have any ideas to any places that still might have one..
My mom is looking for one and maybe if I find her one at $99 she'd buy me one too ;-)

Try Amazon. Right now. I just bought a 99 dollar one. Though it was funky. It got removed from my cart twice before I finally got it to go through.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...tag=slicinc-20

I just got 1 off amazon through on sale, hope it goes through

i have no idea why im ordering this btw

i have no clue wtf the touchpad really does except i assume it does internet and shit

At these prices they make great gifts for parents and kids.

Pretty much why i got it cause my friends laptop just died thought it might be a nice alternative. Not sure if it will go thru but it confirmed my order just waiting on shipping status

My amazon status just changed to shipping soon i feel like i won the lottery, of course i felt this way when i got a $100 hddvd player and 3 movies on a super amazon deal before bluray won

Its still a great dvd player though now

Thanks man... of course now she's now answering the phone (doh)
Hopefully she calls me back soon.

Sent via tapatalk from the Photon 4G

I think it is funny that Office Depot hasn't even started mine in the shipping process yet and they already want me to submit a review on it.

Here you go parents & kids. There's no apps for it, you can't even watch Netflix on it, and it's a dead hunk of shit. Have fun & enjoy!

Apparently everyone's says "Shipping soon". Mine still does. Rumor has it they won't honor any ordered shortly after 4pm Central, but no firm confirmation on that.

I'm in the same boat as you. Here's hoping...

Until Android gets ported over to it.

LOL... yeah...

http://kansascity.craigslist.org/ele/2561615950.html

Haha, good luck with that.

now that's funny.

my whole team at work got one of the 16 gb models. contacts at CDW can pay off.

My order got cancelled well ****

Don't tell me. OnSale right?

Yeah- mine too

Can't say I am overly impressed with the battery life on this Touchpad. Seems shorter than my gtablet.

I'll buy it from you for $99 + tax and shipping.

heh. I'm going to play with it for a week or so. If I decide I'm just not happy enough with it I'll probably sell it. You are the second person to ask me this so you are second on my list.

I absolutely love the screen on this thing but the WebOS, while pretty cool, is also very clunky. I can only hope they get a stable beta of android on it soon.

So you're a collector of crappy tablets, eh? ;)

LMAO.... Guru says the iPad is way too expensive and not worth the price point. But he'll sure as shit buy up multiples of these cheap tablets... even with crappy performance an no support. The man can't refuse a bargain...

I like how he admits the webOS is clunky too. Lol

Did you just call Guru "it"?

Nope. : )

I've just picked up TWO perfectly good tablets for less than the price of one ipad with a completely closed off system that doesn't do everything I want it to do.

The only flaw with the gtablet is the viewing angle of the screen. The only flaw with the Touchpad is the lack of android which will be remedied soon.

You call them crappy, I call them perfectly functional and better than the ipad for what I need.

Oh, and there is plenty of support from the DEV communties which is better than support from the manufacturer anyway.

Yep....kinda figured it may happen with the huge run. I think i may opt for an ipad 2 sometime.

Count me amongst the alleged hundred thousand or so screwed by Onsale. Oh well.

I'm just glad I didn't cancel my Office Depot order or I would have been really pissed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Drawing-HP-T...#ht_616wt_1178

LMAO

That is a hell of a deal. I bet he used high-quality paper.

http://global.christianpost.com/news...october-57863/

Hmm

I'm going to snatch one up in hopes that I will eventually be able to put Android on it, which I've heard is in the works.

Hmmm, my wife was just mentioning how she would like to have one just a couple days ago.

If the hardware will support it, I am betting you will see a HUGE push to put Ice Cream Sandwich on it as soon as it's released. (which is supposed to be 3 weeks from today give or take a few days)

$499 down to $149 or $99? That's a deal....

I have a Touchpad and I really like WebOS on a tablet. The cards approach to multi-tasking is very user friendly. I thought I'd be itching to put Android on it, but I'm actually quite happy in it's current state. And this coming from someone who heavily tweaks his phones.

Agreed. Even though it is lacking apps, I don't know that I will put android on it or not. The OS works very well. About the only thing I don't like is the browser since it does not support tabbed browsing.

Other than the lack of apps, I really like my Touchpad. Just a few simple tweaks to it (I stopped just short of overclocking it) and it runs great.

You can get the advanced browser. You do have to pay for it ($2 or $3, can't remember), but it works great.

I looked into that but its one big problem is that it can't be set up as the default browser for when you click on links from other apps. It will always open up the crap browser.

Baby steps. CM7 is now "stable," but they're calling it a "lower your expectations" edition, so it's got a long ways to go.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/13/c...ingly-functio/