Former Palm boss Jon Rubinstein makes his exit from HP

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HP Veer 4G

All Things D broke the news today that former Palm CEO and spearhead of the development of webOS, Jon Rubinstein, has left HP. Rubinstein became a part of HP in 2010 when HP bought Palm in its entirety for $1.2 billion.

During his tenure as CEO at Palm, Rubinstein oversaw the transition away from Palm's old platform and the development of the new webOS smartphone platform. After releasing the Palm Pre and Pixi (and variants) in 2009, Palm was eventually purchased by HP in the spring of 2010, where it was fully absorbed into the computer company. Rubinstein was kept on as head of the webOS division, where he led the development of the Veer 4G smartphone and TouchPad tablet.

When HP decided to kill off its webOS hardware division last summer, it was not clear what Rubinstein would do, but the company said he would stay on as head of "product innovation" as part of the company's Personal Systems Group. It appears that Rubinstein's initial agreement with HP was to stay with the company for 12 to 24 months following the acquisition of Palm, and he has now fulfilled that commitment.

"Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well," said HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan. Rubinstein doesn't seem to have any immediate plans after leaving HP, but we hope that he does show up at some point in the future to once again shake up the mobile phone market.