14 DAY TRIAL // We have just spotted a piece of information that won't really come as a mind-blowing revelation to anyone who knows about the fate of HP's (previously Palm's) webOS.
Going right to the point, former Palm CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Jon Rubinstein has revealed that he is leaving HP.
The man came to work with the company after the acquisition of Palm, a mobile phone company he led until it was acquired by HP.
Prior to his tenure there, he was a high-ranking Apple executive.
“I am going to take a well deserved break after four and a half years of developing webOS,” Mr. Rubinstein told AllThingsD website.
Given the state of the webOS operating system, and the rocky road it had to travel after the TouchPad's launch, this is not in the least bit surprising.
After all, even if the corporation does eventually bring out a new tablet, it probably won't be loaded with webOS. Most engineers already left too.
Right now, HP is turning it into an open-source software (the process should end by Fall, 2012).
Ironically, though, the TouchPad actually ended up leading the non-iPad slate market, after its mega price drop during fire sales.
What's more, the device turned up for sale again a few days ago, though the offer was short-lived.
One can only wonder what would have become of Palm's team if the tablet had been more of a success, especially since it is rather clear that the webOS itself, and the hardware, was never the problem.
The real cause behind the spectacular failure of the project was the apparent rush to get a product out the door.
Under such conditions, the webOS tablet debuted with some design flaws that made sure it would fail from the start.
Fortunately, the owners of the item are still getting updates and there is even an Android 4.0 mod for it from the CyanogenMod 9 team.