HP CEO says the firm is undecided about WebOS

MAKER OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER INK HP's CEO, Meg Whitman has revealed that the company does not know what to do with WebOS, the operating system it acquired when it bought Palm in 2010.

"It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision," she told employees, according to The Verge. "If HP decides [to keep WebOS], we're going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period ... it's a very expensive proposition, but HP can make that bet."

HP has been hemming and hawing over what to do with WebOS ever since it announced it would drop the devices that run the operating system in August. Since then it has prepared for a spin-off of the WebOS team, decided to keep WebOS for printers, edged towards selling it again, and now it's back to undecided.

Some have suggested that HP might be using this situation as a marketing ploy, constantly backtracking on its decisions in order to keep its name in the news. If it made a decision and kept to it there would be media coverage, but then it would quickly fade as more interesting news came along.

It's not surprising that HP would have a change of heart, however, as the massive interest in the Touchpad after prices were slashed showed that WebOS still has a lot of potential and that a high price was really the only obstacle to sales.

The ever-decisive Whitman said that the only reason HP hasn't come to a decision on WebOS yet is because it needs to figure out what to do with its PC business first. It has been similarly erratic on that front, suggesting that the company is lacking in focus and direction.

A decision on WebOS is expected within the next three to four weeks. µ