14 DAY TRIAL // What about a year ago seemed to be the resurrection of Palm marks today the death of the once popular mobile phone maker.
HP has just announced that they plan on discontinuing operations for their webOS devices, none other than the Pre and Pixi handsets, and the TouchPad tablet PC.
In Spring last year, HP announced that they were purchasing Palm with the goal of investing a lot in the platform, but said little about the handsets running under the platform.
Just as speculated at the time, the leading computer maker was buying Palm only for the operating system, and the fact that they are discontinuing the said operations does not imply something different.
“HP will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. The devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets,” the company announced in a press release.
The market performance of webOS phones was poor, and it seems that HP did not hope that the just released Pre3 and TouchPad would make a difference.
For Palm enthusiasts, this certainly comes as a hit. Many hoped that HP's money would result in the release of more webOS phones and that the platform would finally manage to take off on the market.
That did not happen and HP decided to sign the death sentence of phones and tablets.
However, the platform will continue to exist, and HP is expected to seek new ways to monetize last year's investment.
“HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward,” the company announced.
Although no new mobile phones powered by webOS will arrive on shelves, new HP products that would be based on the platform are expected to hit shelves soon.
Next year, most of HP's computers might pack webOS, the company said not too long ago. Most probably, other devices will also be loaded with this software.
Chances are that HP will also consider continuing the development of webOS for mobile devices, with the sole purpose of licensing the platform to other companies.
Google has just announced plans to purchase Motorola, a move that opened new opportunities for companies that offer only software on the mobile market, such as Microsoft, and it would not come too much as a surprise if HP made a similar move.
Until more on this is announced, the only thing that remains for enthusiasts to do is to mourn the quick death of Palm's webOS family of phones.