JonRubenstein
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HP's Stephen DeWitt to lead webOS global business unit, Jon Rubinstein stepping aside
It's looking like there's a little shuffling happening at HP in the wake of the TouchPad's release -- and its somewhat less than flattering reception. The company has announced that Stephen DeWitt will be taking the lead in HP's webOS global business unit, while Jon Rubinstein will be taking over as Senior Vice President of Global Innovation for HP's Personal Systems Group -- DeWitt himself coming from PSG Americas. You'll of course know Jon as the main cheerleader for webOS in the past, appearing on our Show back in March to show off the TouchPad and the Pre 3. Will Stephen manage the same enthusiasm in extolling the finger-friendly OS's virtues, or will we instead be seeing more webOS printers? Let's all hope for the former. Update: DeWitt was previously the head PSG Americas, not the global Personal Systems Group. Stephen DiFranco will be taking over the role of SVP for PSG Americas. Update 2: The Official HP Palm Blog has added a post entitled "Next steps for HP webOS" providing a bit more context to the shift, indicating that this move is intended to "accelerate the scale and growth of its existing webOS business as well as to expand and enhance other HP product lines." So, printers, then?
Palm OS 2 slipping from "early 2009" to "first half" of next year?
The New York Times has a little puff piece on Palm to accompany the launch of the Treo Pro today, and buried between the fawning references to Jon Rubenstein's former gig at Apple and how that's affected his management style ("He made them redesign the battery panel on the back so it didn't squeak. And he asked for fixes to the software so it would lock up less frequently." -- solid work, homey) there's a little tidbit about how Palm OS II and a single new device to run the new software will arrive in the "first half of next year." Two things interesting about that: first, that's a much wider timeframe than the "early 2009" window we've been hearing for a while and could signal even more delays, and second, it's a little odd that Palm is going to debut the new OS on just one device. Launching on a single device is pretty Apple-esque, so we'll cut Rubes some slack on that, even if we don't think it's the best idea -- but at this point the only real info we're hearing about Palm OS II is news of delays, and that's not exactly out of the Jobs playbook -- remember, real artists ship.
WSJ Confirms Palm layoffs amidst Rubenstein reorg
In a piece carried by the Wall Street Journal detailing the Jon Rubenstein-era shake-up at Palm, we get the first confirmation of Wednesday's layoff rumor. According to the WSJ, "Yesterday, Palm made some reassignments and staff reductions." The article does not cite specific numbers. Regardless, our hearts go out to those who received this unfortunately timed news. Given Palm's long, steady trudge towards obscurity, couldn't this have waited just a few more weeks? Read [subscription required]
