Mark Bridge writes:

With less than a fortnight until Christmas, it’s probably time to order the turkey and start thinking about gifts. What could be a better present than being given your very own mobile operating system?

That’s what’s happening over at HP, which is making its webOS software available to the open source community. The big question now is whether developers will respond with “lovely, just what I wanted” or a slightly embarrassed “oh, I’ve already got one of those.”

HP, which decided in August to stop producing webOS tablets and phones, has announced it will contribute its webOS software to the open source community.

The code of webOS will be made available under an open source licence, while HP says it intends to remain active in the development and support of webOS.

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to a summary of last week’s mobile industry news from TheFonecast.com.

The biggest mobile-flavoured story from the past seven days was probably HP’s replacement of its president and CEO. Léo Apotheker is out after less than a year, replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. It’s not likely to affect the company’s plans for webOS tablets and phones… but it’ll be interesting to see what Ms Whitman does next.

HP, which describes itself as the world’s largest technology company, has appointed Meg Whitman as president and chief executive officer. She’s replacing Léo Apotheker, who became president/CEO last November.

In addition, non-executive chairman Ray Lane has become executive chairman of the board of directors.

Mark Bridge writes:

This month’s Carnival of the Mobilists is now online over at wapreview.com. It collects the month’s best mobile blogging and is hosted on a different mobile-related site every time it appears.