HP Discontinues Production Of WebOS Devices, Including Touchpad

Major technology company HP has announced it will be discontinuing production of WebOS devices, including mobile phones and the Touchpad line of tablet PCs. The news comes just over a year after HP acquired WebOS maker Palm for $1.2 billion, and less than two months after the July launch of the company's TouchPad tablet line. WebOS was never a major player in a smartphone marketplace dominated by the iOS, Android and Blackberry platforms, representing less than two percent of all handsets at its peak. Still a number of game developers ported games to the platform, including Electronic Arts, Rovio, Glu Mobile, and Gameloft. Fearless Studios, the independent developer studio founded by former LucasArts employees Haden Blackman and Cedrick Collomb, announced a major project for the platform as recently as June. HP says it "will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward." Meanwhile, HP has also confirmed it is looking into selling or splitting off its Personal Systems Group, which includes the company's consumer PC business as well as business workstations.