H-P Dismantling... From PCs to WebOS (HPQ, DELL, RIMM, GOOG, AAPL)

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is still going to feel like a lost company for a while.  At first it was going to allow Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) to run wild in the PC market with a spin-off of the PC unit, sans-printing and imaging.  Now it is considering selling its WebOS platform that is what is left of Palm.

To have unloaded the PC unit without the printing operations was not a clean enough of a break for H-P and Leo Apotheker was canned during an obviously bad strategy.  Sometimes trying to unlock shareholder value costs more than the rewards at the end of the rainbow.  Without the printer business, the PC unit would be just like having a line of toasters.  People make money selling toasters, but the toaster business is just unexciting for everyone outside of people who own diners.

The possible move to dump Palm, ergo WebOS, is a sad move.  It is also of no real surprise.  H-P should have not bothered acquiring it in the first place.  Even Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) was beating Palm, but the onslaught of Android from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) killed both RIM and Palm.  Palm and RIM both arguably had the first mover advantage, but the rest is history.

There was not really anything wrong with WebOS.  It is a clean operating system and the only reason there are so few apps is because attention was focused elsewhere by developers going after the Android and iPhone app markets.  By the time Palm was bought by H-P the operating system and market share were both awaiting sentencing to death row.  As for now, it is a legacy system… Go find someone using a Palm now and see how long it takes you to find one ouser.

Palm, WebOS and the rest of it… Here yesterday, gone today.  Can you blame Meg Whitman for wanting to get rid of the effort? Not at all.  The question is whether or not there is even any real value left in it that someone would offer more than $1.00 for.

JON C. OGG