Right after the official launch of webOS 3.0 operating system, HP  on Monday announced it is accelerating the global expansion of webOS. To support this next phase of growth, HP has appointed Stephen DeWitt as senior vice president and general manager of its webOS global business unit, whereas Jon Rubinstein, will assume a product innovation role within the personal systems group (PSG) at HP.

"With the successful debut of our first wave of webOS-based products, we are drawing on our deep executive bench to position the right leaders in the right roles to accelerate the long-term growth of webOS. Stephen DeWitt has a proven ability to build and scale organizations into global, multibillion dollar operations, and I am confident that he will take webOS to the next level. At the same time, we continue to leverage the core strengths of Silicon Valley icon Jon Rubinstein to apply his considerable talents across the PSG portfolio," said Todd Bradley, executive vice president of personal systems group, and member of the executive board at HP.

The new appointments indicate once again the importance of webOS for HP and the company's hopes to create unique products with the operating system for various mobile devices going forward.

Stephen DeWitt, who has been leading the PSG Americas region at HP, will be responsible for all aspects of the webOS business, including engineering, research and development, sales, marketing and go-to-market support. In his new role, Mr. DeWitt will spearhead the creation of a fully integrated, global developer and independent software vendor program to deliver new consumer and business applications. DeWitt's team also will create a dedicated mobility practice with HP's partner community, with the goal of delivering consumer and enterprise solutions globally. DeWitt has dramatically improved PSG's profitability and share position in the America's region since his arrival to HP in 2008. He is succeeded by Stephen DiFranco, head of the solutions partners organization for the Americas region at HP.

"As part of our investment in the future of webOS, we are working in lock step with the developer community, our channel partners and the start-up community to create an application ecosystem that delivers on HP's mobile connectivity strategy," said Mr. DeWitt.

Jon Rubinstein has been named senior vice president for product innovation in the personal systems group at HP. He will continue to report to Todd Bradley in this role, helping to propel innovation across product lines. HP will leverage Rubinstein's experience for building consumer products and his long history of driving game changing innovation, such as webOS.

"With the launch of webOS 3.0, our team has delivered a world-class platform for HP to leverage going forward, and it is now time to take things to the next level. With webOS under Stephen DeWitt's proven leadership, I'm looking forward to my new role and driving further innovation for webOS and other PSG products," said Mr. Rubinstein.

Tags: HP, webOS, Palm, Apple