HP announced in statement on Thursday that it would continue to make PC’s, but the fate of the WebOS division has, according to contrary reports from the Guardian, been all but sealed with an expected shut down in November.
According to the statement on Thursday the company stated that the future of the tablet operating system was still undecided, but according to the Guardian the end of the road is imminent.
The compete shut down of the division would see the loss of 500 jobs and see’s HP abandoning the tablet market after only 6 months having spend over a billion to buy the OS when it acquired Palm last year.
One loose-lipped HP employee, working with the division, said: “There’s a 95% chance we all get laid off between now and November, and I for one am thinking it’s for the best.”
The shut down would represent one of the biggest losses in tech history and also calls into question the wisdom of buying Palm for $1.2 billion in the first place.
The ill-fated Touchpad failed to capture the imagination of the tablet market and was subsequently sold-off in the fire-sale where the tablet became the hottest piece of tech in town due to its being massively discounted of £100.
If you consider the losses HP would have taken on building the hardware and marketing the products then it all adds up to one almighty black hole in the coffers.
While an official announcement is yet to be made, it seems the Touchpad and WebOS will be resigned to tech folk-law.
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