A while back, I wrote about a sad panda Steve Ballmer who, months after poking an HP/Windows conflagration called “Slate” at CES 2010, had HP announce they were yanking the device from production in favor of developing their own OS via their Palm acquisition. Whereas in the past, this kind of betrayal would have led to scorched earth in 5 mile radius around HP’s Palo Alto headquarters, in 2010 all Microsoft could do was tear up quiver-lipped and choke on the new normal: that Microsoft was no longer a player and can’t afford to burn any of its partners, no matter how overtly or spectacularly they embarrass the company. In a huff, Microsoft spitefully fired Robbie Bach, grabbed a couple of pints of Ben and Jerry’s and passed out on the couch during a “Drop Dead Diva” marathon. So I hear.
It looks like HP is making good on its emasculation: enter the HP TouchPad, a 9.7” tablet (*yawn*) running a jumbo version of Palm’s WebOS. It will be available this summer, meaning like every Palm product, it will be competing with the newly-minted version of Apple’s product – in this case the iPad2 – which means it’ll bomb.
But I appreciate HP taking one for the team to make Ballmer look like a bigger douche. Not that he needed any help.
Anyone who’s ever had a controlling interest – be they boss‚ spouse or capital investor – go off the reservation when they were allowed to unhinge their cake-traps will appreciate this story. Palm Inc. filed a “Free Writing Prospectus Published or Distributed by Media” – basically a series of qualifications and retractions – for Elevation Partners’ Roger McNamee statements to Bloomberg TV during a March 5 interview about the not-yet-released Palm Pre.
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