webOS: HP Will Make a Decision in 2 Weeks

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Billion-dollar decisions are not so easy, even if you’re a big company that sells millions and millions of computers and devices each year. Having swayed back and forth on its decision to jettison webOS, Hewlett-Packard says it will be able to decide on the fate of webOS in two weeks.

HP originally announced plans to shut down its PC division and spin off development on the webOS platform this August. But amid management changes, HP was able to regain focus, and announced it will continue servicing the PC consumer and server market through its Personal Services Group.

But with webOS not taking off as planned, there have been speculations whether the company will be spinning off this division, licensing it to other smartphone and tablet manufacturers, or altogether selling it to any takers. HP’s new CEO Meg Whitman says we will know for sure in two weeks.

In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Whitman says it will not be an easy decision, but they will make one in two weeks’ time. Loosely translated from French, she says, “We should announce our decision in the next two weeks. This is not an easy decision, because we have a team of 600 people which is in limbo. We need to have another operating system.”

From what Whitman says, the company will need an operating system, which means it is most likely to continue with producing mobile devices such TouchPad, which only rose in popularity when HP announced its discontinuation, prompting $99 fire sales, which made the TouchPad fly off the shelves. HP’s future success in the mobile industry will likewise rely on whether it chooses to stick with the webOS platform or adopt another operating system altogether, such as possibly Android or Windows 8.

With HP reportedly testing both Android and Windows 8 builds on the TouchPad, the final decision may go either way. But what’s clear is that we can still expect HP to build tablets like the TouchPad. It will be even more interesting if they decide to relaunch the product line with Android or Windows 8 officially running the platform.