Connect with us

Editorials

webOS Testing on the iPad Yielded Superior Results than on TouchPad Hardware

Published

on

The Next Web is reporting some interesting news that should make you a little angry about HP’s abandonment of the TouchPad and by extension webOS. Apparently engineers tested webOS in a browser on an iPad and found that it ran twice as fast in that environment than it did on the planned hardware.

Well, that explains the “blame the hardware” game. But it certainly reinforces the questions that I raised in this post earlier this morning. Were the inmates running the asylum at HP when this was going on? Did know one with the authority to call a halt to what has turned into a disaster have the foresight, the wisdom, or the stones to do so? If you want to chalk it up to corporate inertia that’s one thing. But if you ask me this certainly makes Leo Apoteheker’s statement at the beginning of yesterday’s earning call ring a bit hollow. This is a paraphrase, but I believe he said, this is all about maximizing shareholder value. I’m not one who believes in that charade that businesses play, but boy, somebody sure forgot the shareholders along the way to this debacle. If you ask me the shareholders should be demanding someone’s head about now.

Now, let’s talk about the customers. OK, so HP new it had a turkey with its TouchPad hardware. I don’t think anyone could count the amount of money it spent dressing that turkey up prior to the launch in order to promote it. Doesn’t anyone think about the dangerous game you play with your company’s integrity and brand when this kind of thing goes on. Don’t think info like this won’t get out to the public in this day and age, as obviously this has. Yesterday it looked like HP was making big strategic moves that could be classified as a gamble. Today it is starting to look like HP is trying to cover its butt.

 

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. GTaylor

    08/19/2011 at 8:45 pm

    I’ll chalk it up to corporate inertia. “They’s a lot t’ be said fer corport innersha. It was corport innersha that kep a lot o’ the biggins great long afta they quit mak’in enny sense. Along with HP count GM, Country Music, an the Patent-Judicial Complex.”

  2. citoyenlambda

    08/19/2011 at 9:11 pm

    Webos performed better on an ipad than on HP hardware, why not propose the software to Apple ?

  3. cenobyte

    06/06/2012 at 7:02 pm

    I love my touchpad. I think webos has it over iOS in some respects. The processor is underclocked, this is to reduce heat, save battery and lengthen life.
    There are good things about this device
    –It is the only tablet I found that uses are wireless charging system via the HP Touchstone. Nothing to plug in, great bluetooth and wifi. What’s not to like; this think makes the Amazon kindle fire look putzy.
    –I’m a HUGE apple nerd, but this is a great tablet, for under $400 you get the tablet, touchstone, screen protector and plastic case, this OS prints, Android doesn’t; yes there are no knew official apps.
    –Using “Preware” (the WebOS, jailbreak) you can speed it up, and add a few features. Cyanogen has a decent Android 4.0 port. Both of these look hard but in practice take 10 minutes each.

    Totally respect the fact that everyone has a different take on all this. I am an IT professional, so I speak geek. My mother, she’d be an Ipad girl; I’m at home with any device. I personally use the touch pad in the kitchen for recipes and carry a ipod touch for “life functions”.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.