HP has scuttled several webOS powered devices including the TouchPad and Pre phones. Their press release leaves the future of webOS rather open…
HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.
Presumably the webOS team inside of HP/Palm isn’t so large that it costs HP a ton of money. They may try to make up their investment by giving webOS a little time to find a buyer or license it. But by developing the OS separate from the hardware the OS will suffer as we’ve seen with Android and Windows. The experience won’t be nearly as polished as it was on the TouchPad and Pre devices which was, arguably, getting better and better and could be described as pretty good.
If they can’t figure out a way to license webOS or find a buyer for it within a quarter or two I’d be willing to bet HP will simply drop it.