PreCentral: Sam Greenblatt out as webOS CTO, new leadership not yet announced

[News Reporter]

We've been hearing rumblings of tension within the leadership of HP's Open webOS unit, and today we've learned that webOS CTO

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is transitioning away from his leadership position within webOS. We contacted HP and they confirmed that Greenblatt will no longer be in charge of webOS, though they offered no hints as to who might be taking the lead:

"Sam Greenblatt is moving from webOS to a new role at HP and will continue to assist the team during the transition. The Open webOS project is on schedule and HP remains committed to the roadmap announced in January."

Sources indicate to us that developers within HP were frustrated by the pace of (whether they wanted it to go faster or slower, we're not certain), and that there has been considerable head-butting since Greenblatt took the lead of webOS just a few short months ago. For what it's worth, HP has delivered on , , the , and the .

Before coming to webOS, Greenblatt had been "VP of Strategic Program, Strategy & Corporate Development", a job title that tells us pretty much nothing, but still sounds like something that would mesh well with leading a group like webOS. Additionally, at least according to his LinkedIn profile, Greenblatt also currently holds the CTO of Enterprise Global Distribution position at HP, so he'll still have something to do once the transition to whoever is new is complete. Of course, within HP eventually .

HP Chief Strategy Office is still in place, guiding the webOS effort from above, as are the remnants of the Open webOS staff after . Drama like this is never good for any group, and it's especially not good right now after in the past five months. We're hopeful HP will pick a new leader for the webOS CTO position that will be keep Open webOS on track and drama at a minimum.