Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein leaves HP

NEW YORK (AFP) - Former Palm chief executive Jon Rubinstein has left Hewlett-Packard, less than two years after Palm was acquired by the computer giant.

"Jon has fulfilled his commitment to HP," a company spokesman said in a statement. "We wish him well."

Rubinstein helped create the iPod while at Apple and later joined Palm.

He moved over to HP when it bought Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010.

HP, however, abandoned plans last year to develop smartphones and tablet computers using the webOS mobile operating system acquired from Palm, and Rubenstein's departure had been expected.

HP announced this week that it would make webOS available to the open source community by September, meaning that developers anywhere can tinker with it as they wish and use it free of charge.

In an interview with technology website TheVerge.com, Rubinstein said that when Palm was acquired by HP, he agreed to "stick around for 12 to 24 months."

Rubinstein said he had no immediate plans.

"I'm going to take a little break for a while, take my time, figure out what I want to do next," he said.