Down the rabbit hole we go, to where tablets last six weeks on the market, great mobile OS’s are put out to pasture before their time, and HP executives are not told of doomed tablets until days before their demise.
It’s the world of HP’s consumer-side business, and it’s looking rather uncomfortable at the moment if we’re to believe a new report that claims former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and Todd Bradley, the head of HP’s Personal Systems Group, knew nothing of the TouchPad or webOS’s demise until last Sunday.
That’s correct! The main man behind webOS at the moment, Rubinstein, and the man who lent a helping hand to get the Palm/HP deal done last year knew nothing of the company’s plans for its consumer division until a week ago. Not exactly the track I would take with my billion-dollar year-old acquisition, but I’m certainly no high-powered tech executive. What do I know?
As for Rubinstein and Bradley, their futures appear to be as uncertain as HP’s consumer business. [All Things D]
olearymo
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 9:32 AMPoor Ruby. He did such great work. The dude who designed the iPod for goodness’ sake. And treated so crappy.
Big Windows
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 1:13 PMInteresting that the new CEO at HP idolizes IBM and is going down that path. I am not sure about the timing but I think Ruby (as you affectionately call him) got there first… Even if he didn’t… Why was he hired when you are not going to go after the Apple ethos. Complete hardware/software control from cradle to grave to the exclusion of all others (With the exception of accessory limpets?)
chris
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:22 AMHP is on a downard slide. Poor management and greed has destroyed it.
Sell your shares, they don’t have long to live.
Graeme
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 12:00 PMI read an article the day before the announcement which was singing the praises of WebOS and how HP were going to roll it out to a wide variety of devices, not just tablets, phones and PCs. There were numerous quotes from the WebOS head of marketing (or similar position). Even given the delay in getting articles published, it does show a real “management by stealth” mentality.
bonker
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 5:11 PMGreat Work!! HP executives. you just dump a billion dollars down the drain!!!