HP still mulling fate of WebOS, report says

Despite reports that Hewlett-Packard was nearing an announcement regarding plans for its WebOS business, Meg Whitman is still undecided.

The company was reportedly expected to reveal the fate of its troubled mobile operating system this evening, but HP's recently installed chief executive officer told a company-wide meeting that a decision would not come for at least a few more weeks, according to a report on The Verge.

"It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision," Whitman reportedly told a room full of Palm and HP employees. "If HP decides to do this [to keep WebOS], we're going to do it in a very significant way over a multi year period."

HP representatives did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

The mobile platform's future has been in limbo since then-CEO Leo Apotheker announced during an August earnings call that the company would discontinue operations for WebOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and WebOS phones. His proposal was to transform the company from a consumer-electronics product manufacturer to a business-class software and consulting services provider.

With its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in July 2010, HP had a mobile operating system of its own and was suddenly relevant in the smartphone industry. However, despite critical praise, the operating system failed to gain traction in the crowded mobile OS market.

The company was rumored to be reviewing a proposed deal that would net it several hundred million dollars for the unit, but apparently that offer wasn't enticing enough to sway Whitman.