The dust is settling a bit slower than hoped for Hewlett Packard, following a series of unfortunate events and seemingly dramatic year-ender.  Fresh from a leadership change-up, which named Meg Whitley as the 3^rd CEO in two years, HP missed its earnings expectations with plummeting revenues for the third quarter—a crucial period for an ailing organization, thanks to Leo Apotheker’s reign.  Looking back at the past 11 months or so, there is one thing that could’ve saved HP or Apotheker from hitting the pits, webOS. Instead, the mobile platform initiative turned out to merely hasten the corrosion of the business. This is along with the demise of HP TouchPad, of course.

AllThingsD reported that HP will release its decision regarding the fate of webOS within the next two weeks. In her interview, Whitman shows concern regarding the possible layoff that could take place as the project takes the backseat. She pleaded for some time saying, “We should announce our decision in the next two weeks. This is not an easy decision, because we have a team of 600 people which is in limbo. We need to have another operating system.”

However, Former Senior Director of webOS application development Michael Rizkalla could no longer wait for the next 14 days, and immediately packed his bag and left HP amidst the deliberation.  The executive jumped to Xobni and will head the mobile applications department there.  It’s pretty obvious that the webOS fallout still inflicts pain on the financial state of the company, together with a weakening array of services. With the outcome believed to be leaning towards eliminating webOS, the decision could very well influence business decisions within the competitors’ yard. Should HP decide to sell webOS, there’s a pile of interested buyers that include Oracle, Amazon, Google, Intel and Microsoft.

Whitman realizes how shaky business is for HP and that enemies are feeding on their agony (ehem, Michael Dell).  Still riding on the tablet frenzy, they will try their luck for the second time with the HP Slate 2.  They also regained a pinch of momentum as investors showed vote of confidence after the retirement of HP’s CTO.

Clearly, Whitman may have anticipated a workload when she accepted the challenge to lead the world’s premier PC producer, but the avalanche has just started and it’s time to roll up the sleeves.  Aside from defining the organizational direction, Whitman vows to reclaim the crown in 2013 as she outlined her future for HP.