HP's Stephen DeWitt Named New Head of WebOS Group

Posted By: Ryan Kairer Monday, July 11, 2011 2:44:40 PM

HP today announced that former Palm Inc. CEO Jon Rubinstein is now out as head of the former Palm group, and has reassigned Stephen DeWitt as senior vice president and general manager of its webOS global business unit. Ruby will take on an unspecific product innovation role within the Personal Systems Group (PSG) at HP.

"With the successful debut of our first wave of webOS-based products, we are drawing on our deep executive bench to position the right leaders in the right roles to accelerate the long-term growth of webOS," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, and member of the Executive Board, HP. "Stephen DeWitt has a proven ability to build and scale organizations into global, multibillion dollar operations, and I am confident that he will take webOS to the next level. At the same time, we continue to leverage the core strengths of Silicon Valley icon Jon Rubinstein to apply his considerable talents across the PSG portfolio."

DeWitt, who has been leading the PSG Americas region at HP, will be responsible for all aspects of the webOS business, including engineering, research and development, sales, marketing and go-to-market support. In his new role, DeWitt will spearhead the creation of a fully integrated, global developer and independent software vendor program to deliver new consumer and business applications. DeWitt's team also will create a dedicated mobility practice with HP's partner community, with the goal of delivering consumer and enterprise solutions globally.

DeWitt has dramatically improved PSG's profitability and share position in the America's region since his arrival to HP in 2008. He is succeeded by Stephen DiFranco, head of the Solutions Partners Organization for the Americas region at HP.

"Innovation is at the core of webOS, and I look forward to working with our talented team of engineers as we strive to develop the industry's most compelling set of products, solutions and services in markets around the world," said DeWitt. "As part of our investment in the future of webOS, we are working in lock step with the developer community, our channel partners and the start-up community to create an application ecosystem that delivers on HP's mobile connectivity strategy."

Jon Rubinstein has been named senior vice president for Product Innovation in the Personal Systems Group at HP. He will continue to report to Todd Bradley in this role, helping to propel innovation across product lines. HP will leverage Rubinstein's passion for building exceptional consumer products and his long history of driving game changing innovation, such as webOS.

"With the launch of webOS 3.0, our team has delivered a world-class platform for HP to leverage going forward, and it is now time to take things to the next level," said Rubinstein. "With webOS under Stephen DeWitt's proven leadership, I'm looking forward to my new role and driving further innovation for webOS and other PSG products."

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On the way out

jca666us @ 7/12/2011 1:00:45 AM #

I guess that since the touchpad launch was flat, ruby got demoted.

I figure he'll be out of hp in less than a year.

RE: On the way out

LiveFaith @ 7/12/2011 1:56:00 AM #

Do you have evidence of a "flat" launch for the Touchpad or are you just assuming that it is flat due to some not so glowing reviews?

I was at Best Buy today and the lady working the area said that the Touchpad has been selling very well.
Pat Horne

RE: On the way out

gmayhak @ 7/12/2011 2:24:24 AM #

People should stick up for the under dog but 'very well' to a sales lady at best buy could mean several dozen / week. HP won't reach critical mass until they get the product in the hands of millions of consumers so the developers will get on-board.
Many developers make most of their money building apps for others, I don't know how other developers are approached but from my experience it's "can you build me this iPhone / iPad / Android app ?" even though most of my exposure on the web is as someone that has developed hardware & apps for Palm devices.

Gary
Tech Center Labs
www.talestuff.com
www.iTalentProductions.com

RE: On the way out

jca666us @ 7/12/2011 5:01:06 AM #

Pat,

Bad choice of words, let me try again.

Due to the Touchpad's soft launch - and largely average to mediocre reviews - HP decides to push Ruby aside in order to turn around the webos division.

If sales figures were stellar, HP would have put out a press release.

At the two best guy's near me, plenty of Touchpad's in stock. Salespeople aren't too keen on it - both I spoke to recommended iPad or android.

Prediction, Ruby's out of HP within a year.

RE: On the way out

rpa @ 7/14/2011 6:06:28 PM #

Garty: while you are at it.....can you come up with an iPhone calendar app with timezone support? One of Palm's great features and I wonder why Apple has this on iCal but not the iPhone app....

Time-zone support (was: 'RE: On the way out')

HyperScheduler @ 7/14/2011 10:10:29 PM #

@rpa:

Have you checked out Pimlical from CESD's PimlicoSoftware.com? True, it is not a native iPhone app. *but* he sells a desktop-software program (similar to, but more features than, the Palm Desktop software) that syncs with Google Calendar. So, Google Calendar "reads" the changes that you make in Pimlical that are then automagically synced with your iPhone.

My understanding is that CESD is extremely committed to time-zone support.

RE: On the way out

Gekko @ 7/14/2011 10:21:01 PM #

Android Calendar supports this. when you enter a new event you can specify the time zone for anywhere in the world (or just stay with the default).

RE: On the way out

HyperScheduler @ 7/14/2011 10:52:40 PM #

That is good to know; thank you. And of course, there is Pimlical for Android, too (just sayin'). . .

RE: On the way out

Gekko @ 7/14/2011 11:34:45 PM #

i don't like Pimlical. too busy, cluttered, and cheap looking. i like simple and clean. i'm a minimalist.

https://market.android.com/details?id=jp.co.johospace.jorte&hl=en

RE: On the way out

rpa @ 7/16/2011 5:48:36 PM #

HS: thx. I am looking for a non-cloud based solution enabling a USB sync to my MacBookPro. I don't have a data plan as I travel internationally all the time so a good old fashioned USB cable sync works best for me.

hey Reverend

Gekko @ 7/18/2011 6:17:34 PM #

fyi -

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/07/17/deal-alert-att-samsung-infuse-4g-available-for-50-at-target-july-17-23/

Nostalgia

heavyduty @ 7/12/2011 10:33:49 AM #

Great to see some of the old permanent PIC crowd still hanging around and even posting; I'd argue that the quality, objectiveness and respect that were present in the discussions here at PIC is something that was never seen again after its decline. "Debates" on the other sites/platforms rarely raise beyond "mine is bigger than yours"-style of arguments and name-calling, along a complete denial regarding the pros and cons of their platform and/or devices.

Some things WERE better before.... *sigh*
Palm Vx (a classic) -> Palm 505 (*yawn*) -> Dell Axim (slooow...) -> Palm TE (great) -> Qtek 9090 (great idea, lousy platform) -> Nokia 6630 (a toy) -> iMate SP3i (not bad) -> Nokia 9300 (can't sync notes!!) -> Treo 650 (awesome) -> hw6915 (almost perfect) -> Nokia E51 (un/impressive) -> Touch Enhanced (nice!) -> Samsung 780 (mousepad woes) -> HTC S740 (stellar)

RE: Nostalgia

hkklife @ 7/12/2011 6:08:42 PM #

I may eventually try to make an actual "investigative" piece out of this, but I made the rounds to several retail stores in the area and took the temperatures of several salespeople regarding the TP.

The general concensus was that it was a nice but overpriced tablet that was too bulky to compete with the latest & iOS offerings. And, of course, the lack of apps was a constant mention.

The staff at two Office Depots in particular were doing everything in their power to pitch the Toshiba Thrive (a $479 Android tablet with fullsize ports & replacable battery) or the Asus Transformer (with an IPS screen & add-on keyboard dock) or Acer Iconia (sort of a midrange hybrid of the Asus & Toshiba). All of those devices were prices at less than $500 and soundly trounce the TP on specs and in app availability. Of course, I KNOW all of that but I was playing dumb and trying to see if the salespeople would try to push me to their most expensive tablet (the TouchPad). Their refusal to do so speaks volumes about the TP's chances in the cutthroat retail world.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro-> Verizon Moto Droid X + Palm TX

RE: Nostalgia

NuShrike @ 7/13/2011 3:02:21 AM #

With a decent phone (such as an HTC G2) covering the phone and total-mobile end, I see very little reason to get a full-scale and $$$ tablet even at Transformer's price range.

OTOH at $250+, the B&N NookColor with CM7 is basically an old-school Palm device, but at 7" with Android and WiFi that works -- GPS through Bluetooth.

Value and ecosystem that cuts through the competition noise -- pay attention TP.
Palm III->Sony NR610C->Sony NR70->Sony NX80->Palm T|X->HTC Kaiser->HTC Fuze->Acer M900->HTC HD2->HTC G2+NookColor