New HP CEO: No Decision On webOS Yet

HP CEO Meg Whitman says that her company is still considering what to do with the webOS. Her predecessor had ended production of smartphones and tablets running this operating system, which HP acquired by buying Palm, Inc.

Earlier this year, the company had unveiled a line of webOS-based smartphones and the new TouchPad tablet. When just one of the handsets had been released, and only a few weeks after the debut of the TouchPad, HP's then-CEO Leo Apotheker canceled them all.

Shortly thereafter, though, Apotheker got the boot. The webOS decision was only a small part of this -- his unpopular plan to spin off HP's laptop, desktop, and printer business as a separate company played a larger role.

Whitman quickly took his place, and has been re-considering previous plans. Yesterday she stated that "We’ll make a decision about the long-term future of webOS within the next couple months."

Todd Bradley, who is in charge of the company's PC unit, said they will "look at what's the right path forward for webOS." Bradley is a Palm alumni and a fan of the webOS.

Many consider the most likely outcome the sale of the operating system to another company. Among the names that have been rumored as possible buyers are Amazon and HTC.