After the rather disappointing sales of the line of WebOS powered smartphones and tablets, HP withdrew from the market completely and focused in other areas. It was quite a hit to their business, including the HP TouchPad which was supposed to be a rock solid competitor to the iPad. That and just about every other tablet that had come out was often touted as “an iPad killer”, but we all know how that ended.
It wasn’t until HP dropped the price to $99 that they flew off the shelves despite being a considerable loss to them. Meg Whitman, the CEO of HP, said that they’re working on getting a smartphone into the marketplace during an interview on Fox Business Network.
Meg didn’t give out any details on the phone, but if they want to launch something in time for the Holiday season, they better get a move on. The chances are slim, though if all goes according to plan, we could hear some more about this early next year. The thing is, HP has almost no choice but to go with Android.
People just aren’t and weren’t familiar enough with WebOS to give it a chance. Android and iOS have far more market share and a large chunk of the population knows about it and likely has friends or family who have one or the other. It’s a big risk for HP to not go with Android. We’ve seen what’s happened to BlackBerry and we’ve also seen the direction that Nokia took after rather disappointing sales. What do you say?