I'm sure you could find dozens of articles from 1996-1998 saying similar things about Apple, but imagine how different the world would be if Jobs listened to them and just declared Apple "dead" and didn't return to the company. WebOS is a great platform and it's not too late to save, but it needs a better company than HP to breathe new life into it.
In my opinion, it's much better than iOS for tablets and larger devices (the perfect TV?) but the clock is ticking. Every day HP wastes with decisions like "should we kill one of our largest sources of revenue?" Apple is right next door developing amazing products for tomorrow like Siri.