WebOS fate to be decided in two weeks

HP CEO Meg Whitman says the company will announce whether it plans to ditch the troubled WebOS software in two weeks time.

The new boss, who took over from Leo Apotheker in September, told French newspaper Le Figaro that the company is taking time to consider all options, with 600 jobs in the division on the line.

HP has been strongly tipped to put WebOS up for sale since it discontinued the HP TouchPad tablet and the similarly poorly received new breed of Pre handsets.

She said: "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."

Indecision

The world's largest PC manufacturer has endured a roller-coaster 2011, marred by its over-committal on the WebOS purchased from Palm and indecision at the top of the company.

After deciding to discontinue WebOS operations, the company also considered selling-off its Personal Systems (PC) business before vowing to stay the course.

Whitman added: "To separate PC would have cost nearly $1 billion. Then, the impact on our revenues would have been too high.

"For businesses that purchase our servers, our networks and storage facilities also buy PC. Finally, the HP brand is indisputably linked to our PC."

Despite the HP TouchPad's abject failure, it still provided one of the biggest tech stories of 2011 when a fire sale saw an insane demand for the tablet.