WebOS may not be dead to HP after all. But what's the difference between dead and life support? On Friday, newly crowned CEO Meg Whitman told a company town-hall meeting that while she agrees with many of per predecessor Leo Apotheker's strategies, the company will continue to optimize the platform. Notes Mobiledia:

Whitman's statement about WebOS is a turnaround for HP, which acquired the software from Palm and made several moves toward pushing the platform onto the market earlier this year before Apotheker decided to cut back on the OS' development, after its TouchPad tablet suffered sluggish sales. By continuing with WebOS, the company acknowledged it must continue to push in the mobile market, despite its recent shakeups.

Whitman said HP still wants to spin off its PC division and continue with its $10.3 billion acquisition of software firm Autonomy. She called the PC spinoff a vital part of the company's strategy. So while her words about webOS were somewhat encouraging, they don't mean a full-blown salvation is likely. "It's almost fair to assume that WebOS is likely to continue to suffer for a longer period - and so will its users," says Erica Thinesen at ITProPortal. From the employee perspective, HP's already laid off about 500 members of the webOS staff, and the rest are "probably printing resumes like Ben Bernanke prints cash," in the words of Sascha Sean at PCMag. Image: Alooxa