I agree with one sentiment of one of the commenters on the article: this seems like a soft shut-down. Even if HP was not making any hardware for it, at least one hardware partner would be nice.
Some kind of commitment to at least one more device coming out with WebOS native. If that had happened, I'd say WebOS would be fine. If no one announces any plans in the next 3 months though... I'm not one to cry doom and gloom, but it's not looking terribly bright. HP wouldn't have done this unless it was their only option. They wanted to sell it and no one was buying.
One thing we can look forward to, custom ROMs that hopefully boot faster. My Touchpad takes a minute and a half to start, which is pretty unacceptable for a tablet.