HP kills webOS after TouchPad flop

Announces plans to discontinue all webOS devices but will explore options going forward.

Well, that was quick. Just days after widespread rumours of poor sales for HP's TouchPad tablet, the company has announced that it's canning the webOS software and the devices that it runs on.

Or, to give the wording from HP's announcement: "HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward."

webOS became an HP property when it acquired Palm for $1.2 billion in April 2010, and the company had talked up its ambitions for the software not just on smartphones and tablets, but on a range of other devices too.

Those ambitions appear to have gone up in smoke. Earlier this week, reports suggested that US retailers were sitting on piles o f unsold TouchPads, after sales failed to match positive reviews of the company's first tablet.

Ironically, it was only today that we were reporting on the TouchPad being the second most desirable tablet behind Apple's iPad in a US survey - albeit with only 10.3% of respondents interested in buying it versus 94.5% for iPad.