Archive for WebOS

LG Covers Its Bases With webOS

Posted in Commentary with tags , on February 26, 2013 by itnerd

LG has been an Android phone manufacturer for some time now. But they clearly don’t feel comfortable with just using Android. I say that because LG is going to get webOS from HP:

LG is acquiring WebOS from Hewlett-Packard, with the intention to use the operating system not for its mobile phones, but in its smart televisions. With the deal, LG obtains the source code for WebOS, related documentation, engineering talent, and related WebOS Web sites. LG also gets HP licenses for use with its WebOS products, and patents HP obtained from Palm. The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

So a bit of Palm lives, but I seriously doubt that they’re just going to use this in just TVs. With the fact that they get the engineering talent along with webOS, one has to think that they have other plans for webOS that they’re simply not talking about right now. If that’s true, this might make the mobile phone market very interesting.

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WebOS Goes To Open Source Says HP

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 12, 2011 by itnerd

The future of WebOS has been decided. According to a press release, it’s going to be Open Sourced:

“webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.”

HP will make the underlying code of webOS available under an open source license. Developers, partners, HP engineers and other hardware manufacturers can deliver ongoing enhancements and new versions into the marketplace.

This sounds good as this has worked for Google. Whether it can find success this way remains to be seen though. Although there are reports of new tablets being a possibility.

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HP Claims WebOS Isn’t Dead…. Except They’re Wrong About That

Posted in Commentary with tags , on August 20, 2011 by itnerd

I came across this blog post today on the official HP Blog from Jon Zilber who claims that WebOS isn’t dead:

HP has made these tough decisions to ensure that our efforts with webOS remain tightly focused. Far from burying webOS, our goal is to ensure the platform’s evolution as a robust operating system for an increasingly mobile and connected world. We have received positive feedback from our customers and our developers about their enthusiasm for webOS — powerful, elegant, and like no other — and we intend to enhance the platform as we explore the options for webOS in today’s marketplace. We’ll take care of our existing customers and, as always, we appreciate your support for our platform. We encourage you to stay tuned as we write the next chapter in front of us.

Sorry. You’re wrong about that. HP only had WebOS for about a year and a half. They put out a few new devices in that time. Now they aren’t putting out anything new and HP Touchpads are now being liquidated at deep discounts. Best Buy isn’t going to take a bath on that alone, so you have to expect that HP chipping in some cash too. So a company would have to be pretty stupid to want to either buy or license the OS from HP as it’s pretty clear that HP has given up on the platform. Thus, why should anybody else take the platform seriously.

HP must have figured that they wouldn’t be able to beat Apple with WebOS. So they decided to eat the $1.2 billion that they spent on Palm. Now they’re just trying to spin it. The problem is, they can’t. They killed WebOS, a company called Palm that had a big hand in creating PDAs and what eventually evolved into smart phones, and screwed users of WebOS devices in the process. WebOS can be considered damaged goods now. Thus it’s dead as the Charleston.

Consider this a #fail moment for HP.

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