How HP and Fossil Handed Apple the Smartwatch Market

The inside story of vision without execution: why being right about the future means nothing without the courage to act on breakthrough insights

Aug 04, 2025

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I was reading the news on my laptop, still recovering from medical leave, when I saw the headline: "HP Discontinues WebOS Devices." My stomach dropped. In that instant, I knew we'd just killed not only Palm but every partnership that depended on our mobile ecosystem—including the MetaWatch project that Bill Geiser from Fossil and I had spent two years b…

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