Meg Whitman, CEO of HP, held an “all-hands” meeting yesterday to discuss the future of WebOS—something that is very relevant to my interests. It has been rumored that HP was looking to sell off their recently-acquired mobile product division, after discontinuing all of their WebOS products and unloading them in a fire sale.

The meeting took place on schedule around 4:30 PM PST, however the results of that meeting were not what WebOS users were expecting. Said Meg Whitman:

“It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision.”

After that she added:

“If HP decides [to keep webOS], we’re going to do it in a very significant way over a multi-year period. It’s a very expensive proposition, but HP can make that bet.”

In other words, they have no clue what they are going to do yet. Good thing they held a meeting!

WebOS could rise again

While I’m sure that many WebOS fans are outraged by this, this actually gives me hope that the revolutionary mobile device platform may rise again. I also applaud HP for their transparency on the issue. Many of these companies have absolutely no clue what they are doing most of the time, but most of them try to hide it.

The fact that they are going to continue to pontificate over the future of WebOS tells me that they haven’t given up on it yet. Even with Android essentially copying two of the features I loved the most, their task manager and notifications system, it’s always good to keep healthy competition going in this market, and Apple isn’t exactly rising to the challenge.

What this means is that we could see the re-emergence of a new WebOS that will punch the entire mobile device industry in the face. It could also mean that they will bury WebOS for good, and kick all the current WebOS users in the balls. Either way, someone is going to get hurt, but at least they aren’t continuing what had become the status quo at Palm, by dragging everyone along and leading them to their inevitable disappointment. You can’t please everyone.

Shitwreck?

At this point, there is no question in my mind that Android is the best mobile device platform out there, and I’m even more excited about the future of WebOS since the announcement of Ice Cream Sandwich. If my experience with WebOS taught me anything, though, it’s that principle alone is not a good reason to stay loyal to a brand. It’s important to compare the features of different platforms and make the right decision. Sometimes it’s not going to be the best looking phone. On the other hand, maybe having a ton of features isn’t that great if you’re not going to use them all. Mobile devices make up the most fiercely competitive industry in existence right now, with game-changing and even life-changing innovations happening frequently. Perhaps one day, HP will salvage something of the shitwreck that WebOS has become, and emerge as the new leader in the mobile device market.