Some may call it the end of an era, but truth be told the era never really started. I’m talking, of course, about HP’s announcement that they are to discontinue webOS phones and the Touchpad. For anyone who follows the smartphone industry it won’t come as a surprise, webOS has faced an uphill struggle since day one given the better marketing and longer reach of its competitors. That’s not to say that webOS is a bad platform, it isn’t, but it just never had the ‘oomph’ to really get off the ground in any meaningful way.
The move comes amidst a sea of negative stories concerning webOS recently. Sales of the TouchPad have been lacklustre at best and there are even reports of BestBuy in America asking for a refund for the TouchPads they haven’t been able to sell. A claim that doesn’t come as any great shock considering this announcement. Then there were the delays with launching the Pre3, which only just went on sale in Europe recently, but still hasn’t made it to American stores.
In their statement HP said:
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.
That last line may give some hope to webOS entusiasts, but with phones and tablets seemingly abandoned you have to wonder what HP can do with it.
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