It's alive! WebOS to be spun out of HP

By the end of 2011, second string mobile device OS webOS, acquired by HP as part of the $1.2bn purchase of Palm in 2010, was considered dead. But a leak from the US firm this week has revealed that webOS is still alive and is being spun out of its troubled parent with an application framework and cloud offerings for company.

Palm fan site webOS Nation got hold of an internal memo from HP, which identified a new brand and company called Gram. The startup’s focus is still a mystery as the company claims it is in stealth mode.

It said: “We are an incubation company, and we are trusting you to keep this company name and product under the radar to give it time to take root and grow.” Well, the cat is out of the bag now, but it’s also known that Gram is hiring and is encouraging its employees to “Help us hire the best and the brightest”.

HP shut down the hardware part of webOS some time ago and is not resurrecting it within Gram. According to the memo, “We are no longer a consumer hardware brand, we are a different company with focus on software, User Experience, Cloud, engineering and partnering.” Along with webOS, the Enyo Javascript application framework and HP’s cloud offerings are being redeployed as part of Gram.

It might be that the troubled firm is ejecting all of the good stuff to keep it separate from the parent, as ex-CEO Leo Apotheker’s last hurrah before his ousting at the end of last year was to announce a focus on software and services with an eye on cloud computing through the $10bn acquisition of Autonomy.