Failed WebOS experiment cost HP $3.3 Billion

Most people I know, have at least one person they met professionally who was a 'dud' at one company and a 'star' at a different company. The difference was how the company utilized their skills and empowered their environment.

I find products have a similar sort of way about them, sometimes a product that is a 'dud' in one company, the same idea is a runaway success in another. Perhaps the most cogent example of this would be the TabletPC vs the iPad. (I could have as easily picked the Palm Pilot and the Newton Messagepad) product concepts, product execution, and the ecosystem into which they are born all have a huge impact on the success or failure of the result.

HP has a vision problem, I know its the 'what if' company but it does. I've got a few hundred of their servers in a data center that need a BIOS update, one of their suggestions? Use the 'Easy update' program on a DVD they would send me. Seriously? Too many products at HP don't know what they want to be (other than successful and cool, which is never something you make, they are side effects of your execution)

At the end of the day WebOS and the Touchpad, were doomed by corporate host they found themselves in. Not a lot of people remember how incensed Microsoft was that people figured out how to hack the Kinect, they threatened to sue people, now they brag about all the cool things people are doing with it. That was an example of something that just barely escaped death at the hands of its acquirer.

I'm sure HP wishes they had their $3.3B back, but I bet they would spend it all again if they could figure out how to re-enable the company to execute on new concepts.

Microsoft loses $1Bil a quarter on Bing. Failure is only when they stop marketing.