HP has finally decided the fate of webOS, the code behind the mobile operating system and it’s an open one: the platform will be contributed to the open source community.
The tech company acquired the software when it bought the smartphone maker Palm for $1.2bn (£767m) last year. HP used the code to power its short-lived range Touchpad tablet computers before it abandoned the product line.
Under the plan, HP will continue to make enhancements to webOS, and the 600 or so employees who work on it will remain at HP. The company has no plans to build devices using webOS in 2012, but it might in future years, said the firm’s president and chief executive, Meg Whitman.
HP’s webOS may have disappeared with the discontinued HP TouchPad, but code-happy fans will now be able to get their hands on an open source version.
