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WebOS tablets may return by 2013

Teaser
WebOS products from HP may be on hiatus while the manufacturer refocuses on Windows 8 tablets for 2012

After  HP announced the future of WebOS as an open source platform, the manufacturer revealed even bigger plans for the unsung mobile operating system.

HP CEO Meg Whitman said yesterday that the company may return to WebOS-based tablets by 2013. By then, the platform may have hopefully evolved and improved with the help of the user community.

We will harness the power of the community to make this a better alternative to to other operating systems,” said Whitman to Tech Crunch. Overtime, HP will make available the framework and source code of WebOS to interested developers, HP engineers and the open community. New enhancements and features would then make it to the marketplace for others to download.

In the meantime, HP will focus on developing Windows 8 tablets for a 2012 launch. No mention of an HP Android tablet was made.

HP acquired the rights to WebOS in 2010 with the acquisition of Palm, Inc. for $1.2 billion. While the software showed potential, the products were greatly overshadowed by the inundation of iOS and Android devices. The HP Pre 3 smartphone and TouchPad tablet, for example, failed to take off in terms of sales and recognition.

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Allen Ngo, 2011-12-10 (Update: 2012-05-26)