HP on Thursday announced that it no longer plans to get rid of its PC division, but what about webOS? New CEO Meg Whitman promised to have a decision on the troubled mobile operating system within a few months.
She also stressed that tablets are still important to HP, but don't expect an HP TouchPad 2. Whitman focused instead on the production of Windows 8-based tablets with Microsoft.
"I think we need to be in the tablet business, and we're certainly going to be there with Windows 8," Whitman said during a conference call with analysts. "We're going to make a run at this [tablet] business."
As for webOS, HP will likely have a decision "in the next couple of months," she said.
In late August, HP said that it would discontinue support for webOS devices, including the TouchPad tablet and webOS-based smartphones. The company said "HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward."
In analyzing its Personal Systems Group (PSG), HP explored whether webOS was tied to PSG and "the answer to that is actually no," Whitman said. HP needs to create a "more holistic experience around webOS."
Todd Bradley, executive vice president of PSG, said HP's "thinking hasn't changed" regarding webOS. "We're continuing to focus on a Microsoft-based tablet that we have and ones we'll develop on Windows 8."
WebOS, meanwhile, is "kind of the next piece of work to complete," he said. The team is "working very, very hard to work as quickly as we can to make the right decisions."
Whitman acknowledged that "we confused the market pretty dramatically on August 18." The top question she gets these days is, "What is HP?" and said the company needs to refocus. "We're on it," she said.
For more, see Who Should Buy WebOS?