HP plans to become a champion in 2013, leaving 2012 as an accommodation period

Nov 30, 2011 16:01 GMT  ·  By

HP's new CEO Meg Whitman revealed a few things recently, one of which pertained to the status of the webOS operating system and its probable fate.

Whatever will happen to webOS is something that people have been wondering about ever since Meg Whitman assumed leadership of HP.

Her answers to the questions of Le Figaro weren't very demystifying, but at least she mentioned that an official statement on the matter will be made in two weeks or so.

“This is not an easy decision, because we have a team of 600 people which is in limbo” Whitman suggested. “We need to have another operating system.”

Printers, or some of them, already use the software, or some form of it at any rate.

As far as actual mobile device implementations went, the HP TouchPad tablet was the only item that actually got launched.

Paradoxically, even though it was officially killed weeks into its existence, the item ended up placing HP in the lead of the non-iPad tablet market.

Granted, that only happened because HP sold it for as little as $99 in order to get rid of its stocks as soon as possible.

Now, HP is making a slate that will run Windows 8 and will appear at some point during 2012.

No word yet on what hardware the company will use but, then again, no one can actually expect such things yet either.

HP is still reeling from the aborted decision to back out of the PC market after all, and it will use 2012 to settle in its new direction.

“We will try to become the champion in 2013″ Whitman said, even admitting that, if tablets are factored into the PC sales, Apple may very well best it next year.

If HP does decide to keep webOS, it will commit to it “in a very significant way over a multi-year period.”