HP may remain in the tablet business thanks to Meg Whitman
After all the turmoil that HP has been through, the surprising choice of Meg Whitmas as the new CEO actually seems to be steering the company back in the right direction. Earlier, they decided that they might not spin off their PC business, and now Meg Whitman sounds like she wants to keep tablets around as well.
Specifically, she said that HP "needs to be in the tablet business". Unfortunately, us WebOS fans can't get our hopes up quite yet, as the company will apparently proceed with Windows 8 on their future tablets. In fact, HP also said specifically that they will not be bringing back the Touchpad line, at least with WebOS on it.
So, where does that leave WebOS? Well, we still don't really know, but things aren't looking good. According to HP, the decision about WebOS is their next priority after deciding about the PC division, so they are probably in the process of making a decision right now. Regrettably though, they do not seem very inclined to put WebOS on their devices, especially with this most recent news about Windows 8, so they will probably either license the technology or kill WebOS once and for all.
Overall, the decision to continue to make tablets seems like the right one for HP, as most analysts agree that the market is just getting started. However, it remains to be seen how well Windows 8 will perform as a tablet OS, so I will be waiting to see what devices come out of this development.
[eWeek]
