Could the TouchPad make a permanent comeback? Probably not, but it's fun to think about. (Credit: Hewlett-Packard) 
 
 commentary If Hewlett-Packard is flip-flopping on the PC business, it should go all the way and bring WebOS and the mobile business back as well. 
 
 After an evaluation of the business, HP said today that it would keep its personal systems group, aka its consumer PC business, calling it the best move for shareholders, consumers, and the company. 
 
 The decision caps off a dizzying few months for HP, which today is putting the kibosh on the complete transformation of the company from a consumer electronics product manufacturer to a business-class software and consulting services provider. In its bid to get out of anything dealing with consumers, HP essentially put WebOS on ice. 
 
 While WebOS and HP's mobile devices business have their fair share of problems, it may be prudent for the company to thaw out WebOS and attempt a comeback. If the company wants to remain a major player in the consumer technology business, it will need to have a mobile strategy. WebOS remains a viable one, if the company can actually get its act together. 
 
 That, however, remains far from a certainty. HP has become like the crazy uncle in the technology family; you just can't predict what it's going to do. 
 
 As a result, the fate of WebOS is still up in the air. New CEO Meg Whitman said WebOS isn't directly tied to the PC business, so keeping one doesn't necessarily mean keeping the other. The leadership team is still working on a decision about WebOS, and Whitman said she hopes to have a decision in the next couple of months. 
 
 "Coming to a town near you soon, I hope," she said during a conference call today to discuss the PC business decision. 
 
 Admittedly, HP bungled its handling of WebOS in the first go-around. The company took too long to roll out its products, didn't set realistic prices, and failed to properly promote its mobile lineup. Killing off its WebOS initiative right when it was getting off the ground probably didn't win the company a lot of fans. But the platform could still be useful if the company wants control over the fate of its mobile devices ambitions. 
 
 While never commercially successful, WebOS won a lot of praise for its ease of use and intuitive interface. It was an elegant platform, often burdened with disappointing hardware. It would be a waste to let the platform fall by the wayside. 
 
 There were other positives with WebOS, too. HP's TouchPad tablets flew off the shelves after the company and retail partners offered them for $100 apiece. Granted, the company was operating at a loss with each sale, but there is now a base of WebOS users in the market, which could be used as a foundation to reintroduce a WebOS-powered smartphone. 
 
 This time, HP really needs to focus on the quality of the product. The original Pre, launched by Palm, suffered because it was positioned as a flagship product built with cheap materials. HP didn't improve too much upon that with its initial product offerings. The company also needed to be more aggressive in courting developers for the platform. Like Palm, it never really understood the importance of getting the developer community behind WebOS. 
 
 So far, HP has been mum on the notion of a smartphone. When asked about them, Todd Bradley, who runs the personal systems group, only focused on the ultrabook segment of thin laptops. 
 
 Whitman, meanwhile, acknowledged that HP needs to be in the tablet business. 
 
 "We're going to make another run at this," she said. 
 
 But Whitman and Bradley only talked about Windows 8, which isn't expected to hit the market any time soon. The iPad, meanwhile, has established itself as the tablet to buy for consumers, with Android tablets making only minor headway with consumers. 
 
 Bradley scoffed at the idea that HP was behind on its tablet business. 
 
 "We're at the beginning stages of a new segment in personal computing," Bradley said. "I hardly believe that a few months in we can be classified as too late." 
 
 But with more Android tablet markets flooding the market and the iPad likely to cement its position further with another iteration early next year, Bradley may want to reassess that comment. 
 
 If HP wants to get into the tablet game faster, it may want to take a closer look at WebOS. 

 This post has been updated. 
 
 Hewlett-Packard will continue making PCs after all. 
 
 In August, the hardware giant dropped a bombshell announcement that it would kill off its tablet and smartphone products and would consider spinning off its PC business as it moved to complete a massive deal to acquire software company Autonomy. 
 
 After weeks of deliberation, the world's biggest PC-maker has finally decided the fate of its PC arm. 
 
 In a statement release on October 27, HP said it would not spin off or sell its personal computer business (called Personal Systems Group, or PSG). 
 
 “HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, according to HP's press release. “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.” 
 
 A former eBay chief, Whitman replaced Leo Apotheker as HP's CEO in September. "We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead,'' the HP board's newly-appointed Executive Chairman Ray Lane said of Whitman's appointment at the time, according to Reuters. 
 
 
 
 HP's decision to keep its PSG branch flies in the face of departed CEO Apotheker's vision to “transform” HP from a hardware leader to a company focused primarily on “enterprise information management." Citing what he called a "tablet effect," Apotheker suggested a shift in consumers' preferences away from PCs and toward tablet devices such as Apple's iPad and the numerous Android offerings in that space. 
 
 Analysts also cited intense competition from heavy hitters Apple and Google as a major influence on HP's decision to kill off its tablet and smartphone devices, a move that HP did not say it will reverse. “HP was competing for developer attention against companies that, as in the case of Apple, have a large head start and a strong base of developers,” NPD analyst Ross Rubin told the Huffington Post in August. 
 
 The October 27 press release states that the PC unit's revenue for the 2010 fiscal year was $40.7 billion. Figures released this month by research firm Garner revealed that HP's PC market share actually grew by 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2011. 
 
 In early October, HP finalized its $12-billion purchase of Autonomy, whose software "searches unstructured data like emails, phone calls and tweets that do not fit into traditional databases," reports Reuters. 
 
 Netflix recently issued a huge backtrack of its own, announcing that it would kill the yet-to-launch Qwikster service, which would have been a standalone DVD rental site. The launch would have split Netflix into two separate businesses, with the original "Netflix" site becoming a streaming-only service. 
 
 Developing... 

 Well, that's the end of that. HP CEO Meg Whitman says "HP is committed to [Personal Systems Group, HP's computer arm], and together we are stronger." There you have it. HP will keep making computers as usual. 
 
 We'll have more on this a bit later today after HP fields a conference call on the decision at 5 PM EST. 
 
 Update: During today's call to discuss the decision to keep PSG as part of HP proper, new CEO Meg Whitman and her cohorts made the same basic point several different ways: spinning off PCs from HP didn't make any freaking sense. Or as Whitman put it: 
 
 "HP and PSG are better together. A separation would not create incremental shareholder return or customer value... At the end of the day the costs and risks of a separation are simply greater than any value we could create." 
 
 What this signals on a larger scale is a possible retreat on HP's part from recently ousted CEO Leo Apotheker's doomed mission to turn HP into the next IBM. 
 
 So you've backtracked on the PSG sale, HP. Nicely done! Now on to getting us our our next batch of bargin bin TouchPads. They're still keeping mum on what the ultimate fate of webOS is, but surely there's a warehouse stocked with unshipped models, right? Maybe? 
 
 In other HP tablet news, the company did confirm that they need to be in the tablet business, and that they're "going to be there with Windows 8." [HP]
– The world's biggest PC maker has decided to keep making PCs. New Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman announced today that the company is backtracking from her ousted predecessor's strategy to spin off the $41 billion computer division and, in the words of Gizmodo, "turn HP into the next IBM." Whitman said an analysis showed the move wouldn't make sense. Still unclear is what will happen with the mobile operating system known as WebOS and the popular TouchPad tablet that HP announced it was discontinuing earlier this year. "While WebOS and HP's mobile devices business have their fair share of problems, it may be prudent for the company to thaw out WebOS and attempt a comeback," writes Roger Cheng at CNET. "If the company wants to remain a major player in the consumer technology business, it will need to have a mobile strategy. WebOS remains a viable one, if the company can actually get its act together." Click for more on HP.