The Verge - Turmoil at HP: a CEO shakeup, executive exits, and an open source future for webOS

Never-released webOS smartphone codenamed WindsorNot revealed

2013-04-24T20:28:46Z

The device above is the all-touch webOS smartphone that never was. Long after HP's misadventure with Palm, a prototype of this previously-rumored phone — codenamed WindsorNot — has been obtained by webOS Nation. The smartphone is said to have identical internals to the Pre 3, and it is centered around a 4-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen. Unlike the Pre 3, however, it runs webOS 3.x, the same version that was used on the ill-fated HP TouchPad. Instead of a gesture area like that found on the Pre, the WindsorNot has a home button borrowed almost directly from the TouchPad. Unfortunately, the prototype is far from stable, and it can't make it past the account setup screen.

According to webOS Nation, the phone was developed under Jon...

HP launches 'Project Moonshot' low-power server to try and save itself

2013-04-08T15:47:52Z

Last month, during HP's annual shareholder meeting, CEO Meg Whitman told investors about what may be the company's most important product launch of the past few years. "This is not evolutionary innovation, this is disruptive innovation... This could truly be a revolution."

The hyperbole doesn't stop there. The product, which is being launched today, is called Project Moonshot — terminology that should conjure images of Google Glass and a self-driving car — and it's said to be the result of more than ten years of research. It's neither of those things, however: it's a new, low-power server for enterprises.

The hype may be justified, however: HP says that Moonshot uses 89 percent less energy than traditional servers that are...

HP board reportedly mulling breakup of company (update)

2013-02-05T23:00:41Z

When Meg Whitman took the helm as HP's CEO, she famously reversed the decision of her predecessor, Leo Apotheker, to spin off the company's consumer PC business. But according to Quartz, HP's board is again toying with the idea of a breakup — a move directors apparently think could improve the financial outlook for shareholders. Quartz Editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney and Gina Chon write that HP's board is considering a variety of breakup scenarios, though it appears executives first want to give Whitman a chance to return HP to profitability as a cohesive unit — a goal she's expressed as unlikely in 2013.

Even so, HP regaining momentum would likely put to rest any prospects of a company split, so the rumor shouldn't be taken as gospel...

HP CEO: company will struggle to be profitable in 2013, stocks near a nine-year low

2012-10-03T18:58:15Z

It's been just over a year since Meg Whitman took over as CEO with hopes of turning the struggling company around, and so far the results haven't gone as hoped. According to Reuters, Whitman said at HP's annual investor meeting that it will take until 2014 for the company's turnaround to become visible, and as such the company will struggle to be profitable over the next year. Along with this news, HP's stock price has dropped 10 percent as of this writing and sits near a nine-year low point. Whitman pointed to lack of clarity around the company's strategy as well as heavy executive turnover for the company's struggles, saying "the single biggest challenge facing Hewlett-Packard has been changes in CEOs and executive leadership, which...

HP CEO Meg Whitman says 'we have to ultimately offer a smartphone'

2012-09-14T13:12:44Z

Last month we learned that HP was launching a new Mobility business unit with a focus on consumer tablets, but it looks like the company's ambitions may also include smartphones. Speaking to Fox Business News, CEO Meg Whitman said that HP is working on getting into the smartphone market, though no timetable has been set. "We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that would be your first computing device," she explained. "We are a computing company, we have to take advantage of that form factor." The news comes as HP is coming off of a flat third quarter in which the company saw a drop in sales for its PCs and printers. HP was previously rumored to be working on an all-touch smartphone codenamed...

Exclusive: HP creates Mobility division to focus on consumer tablets, hires Nokia's ex-MeeGo boss Alberto Torres to run it

2012-08-17T15:29:14Z

We've just been tipped to a memo circulated internally by HP's Todd Bradley — who runs the company's recently-merged Printing and Personal Systems Group — announcing the creating of a new Mobility business unit underneath him that will be responsible for "consumer tablets" and "additional segments and categories where we believe we can offer differentiated value to our customers." The news comes almost exactly one year since HP killed the TouchPad, effectively ending Palm's run as a hardware company and throwing webOS itself into an uncertain future as an open source platform.

Running the new Mobility unit will be Alberto Torres, who departed Nokia after running its MeeGo operations — operations that were doomed once it became...

Pre to postmortem: the inside story of the death of Palm and webOS

2012-06-05T18:09:18Z

Thirty-one.

That’s the number of months it took Palm, Inc. to go from the darling of International CES 2009 to a mere shadow of itself, a nearly anonymous division inside the HP machine without a hardware program and without the confidence of its owners. Thirty-one months is just barely longer than a typical American mobile phone contract.

Understanding exactly how Palm could drive itself into irrelevance in such a short period of time will forever be a subject of Valley lore. There are parts of the story that are simply lost, viewpoints and perspectives that have been rendered extinct either through entrenched politicking or an employee base that has long since given up hope and dispersed for greener pastures. What we do know,...

Former HP CEO Leo Apotheker ends up at French IT company Steria

2012-06-01T23:38:05Z

Leo Apotheker lasted as CEO of HP for less than a year before being replaced by Meg Whitman last September. He hasn't been left hurting for employment, however: he's recently been appointed to the supervisory board of French company Steria. The move was approved by the company's shareholders at a meeting on May 15th. You may recall that Apotheker — who currently serves on boards for Schneider Electric and NGO Planet Finance, as well — was fingered as the individual responsible for the quick end to the three-year plan HP had for Palm after its 2010 acquisition of the company. As for Steria, the company's general manager François Enaud said that "given the widespread changes underway in our industry, Leo's expertise in strategic...