One thing I do not understand. These HP and others CEOs earn millions monthly. So they are not stupid.
How many desktop _platforms_ survived? Two. Windows and MacOS by miracle.
So why they think that the world needs more than 2 or 3 mobile _platforms_? Why they think is it possible to beat Microsoft / Nokia / RIM / Samsung with already collapsed company? Why they bought Palm? What was the thinking?
Or maybe they are personally making money with acquisition like this. Similar to CEOs from banking when they led whole financial sector to the cliff.
This logic could have been applied to Android. There were numerous "leading" mobile operating systems when Android launched. Likewise for Apple launching the iPhone and iOS.
Sometimes, a company has to bet they can beat the competition, or we get stuck with the same old crap, forever.
If they had successfully turned WebOS into a major player in the phone/tablet market it could have been a business worth tens of billions. It's perfectly possible that they thought "there's a 90% chance that this will fail, but it's still a smart gamble"
The part that surprised me is that they're apparently killing off the hardware entirely. I'd assumed that their fallback position would be to become another Android manufacturer and at least make use of the Palm hardware expertise they bought. I guess they don't even think they can make a go of it in that market.
How many desktop _platforms_ survived? Two. Windows and MacOS by miracle.
So why they think that the world needs more than 2 or 3 mobile _platforms_? Why they think is it possible to beat Microsoft / Nokia / RIM / Samsung with already collapsed company? Why they bought Palm? What was the thinking?
Or maybe they are personally making money with acquisition like this. Similar to CEOs from banking when they led whole financial sector to the cliff.