The Next Chapter For webOS

http://developer.palm.com/blog/2011/08/the-next-chapter-for-webos/

by hornokplease • 15 years ago

33 21 15 years ago

developer.palm.com

gfodor• 15 years ago

So wait, they're going to support a platform for which no new devices are being manufactured to run on? It sounds like they're planning to license it, I guess, if they can. (They probably won't be able to.)

gks• 15 years ago

It could also become a desktop OS of sorts. They were planning on shipping it on their HP computers if I recall correctly. This could mean that they could make that available still for Windows PCs as they had planned.

My guess is that your licensing guess is correct. I do hope it succeeds. I feel it's a better option in the long run than Android.

raganwald2• 15 years ago

So wait, they're going to support a platform for which no new devices are being manufactured to run on? It sounds like they're planning to license it, I guess, if they can.

You know, back in the day everybody and his dog was telling Apple to license MacOS (I mean OS 7-9, not OS X). Apple supporters would tirelessly explain that turning MacOS into a commodity OS would make it neither fish nor fowl: It wouldn’t have the reach of Windows nor would it have the seamless integration of an Apple-only product. There was a brief and half-hearted attempt to license it which only cannibalized Apple’s existing sales. Steve killed it the moment he returned as CEO.

Now HP has declared that despite being a dominant manufacturer of PCs, it cannot win in the personal computing business and it has no marketing muscle nor manufacturing chops to succeed and make money in the phone or tablet businesses.

Only everyone talks about how great their OS is. This sounds exactly like Apple when they were all but acquired by NeXT in a reverse takeover. Only instead of doubling down on their manufacturing and marketing like Apple did, they’re exiting the business and licensing their OS. I am not going to predict that they will fail, but I am going to say it will be interesting to see what happens with licensing and to compare it (if only for entertainment purposes) with what happened with Apple.

MrMcDowall• 15 years ago

I commend this analysis to the House.

Adkron2• 15 years ago

Maybe an ex-CEO will come back, and turn this all around? No, no, probably not.

ansy2• 15 years ago

I believe the comparison HP would prefer you use is to IBM. Unlike Apple, HP has a whole lot more than consumer PCs. Between its servers and EDS, it's arguably much more like IBM.

IBM was synonymous with the PC especially in business and government and especially with Thinkpad laptops. Hell, other PCs were always called "IBM Compatible" because an the modern PC was really just a compatible copy of IBM's version of the personal computer. But IBM wasn't executing well and failing to keep up with the Dells of the world on the consumer side of things.

So IBM spun off its consumer products like its PC division (to Lenovo), its peripherals like keyboards and mice (to Unicomp), and its printers (as Lexmark). Then it doubled down on big iron, midrange servers, and made a huge play on software and consulting services.

In the end, IBM survives, is profitable, and nobody thinks it's going away any time soon. What remains of HP has long been growing into a copy of the modern IBM with a huge, low margin PC business hanging off it that grows only by cannibalizing the market share of other low margin PC manufacturers exiting the market entirely. To think that the remaining half of the company wouldn't survive after spinning off the PC business is just silly.

rbanffy• 15 years ago

Remember not all HP employees agree with this utterly boneheaded, pointy-haired decision.

Bud• 15 years ago

First: I really would like webOS to succeed and find a device it can run on.

That said, how is it at all credible that webOS' main backer has simultaneously ceased production of ALL its hardware which was intended to run webOS, but also expects us to believe a line like "We will continue to support, innovate and develop the webOS App Catalog"?

Who's going to buy apps from that App Catalog? How are you planning to keep this OS current as a competitor to iOS if you have NO users in the field using it, buying and downloading apps, helping to test and fine-tune it, etc?

I just can't see this realistically happening. Apparently, very few others can see it, either, which is why HP stock tanked by 20% today.

glhaynes• 15 years ago

"We have opened the next chapter for webOS..."

Well, that's a way to put it I suppose.

eropple• 15 years ago

"Relegated to the dustbin" is still history, just not really filled with detail.

sebkomianos• 15 years ago

tl;dr: "I have no idea what we are going to do - if we are going to do anything anyway!"

Or is it just me that got this message reading this "announcement"?

noonespecial• 15 years ago

And whatever it is that we do or don't do if we do or don't do it "will strengthen our ability to focus on further innovating with webOS". Please still come to our developers conferences!?

I commend the PR guy who banged this one out... I'm guessing he risked creating a paradox that rent the space-time continuum to get this down.

Adkron2• 15 years ago

Why are they continuing the app catalog? I really want to write apps for a shrinking market of people who still own a pre (I'm one of those people). I really hope this canned response is followed by some amazing announcement. Right now it just sucks.

mortenjorck• 15 years ago

This reads like some sort of strained apology for a relative's behavior at a family event.

I can't really think of any way that HP could have more thoroughly botched this transition—the last thing you ever want for a platform is uncertainty; you want to assure end-users and developers alike that your platform is worth investing in.

If HP's board felt it was time to get out of the mobile hardware game, fine; the way to do that would have been to arrange a hardware partnership and devise a plan of continuity for developers and users. Announcing out of the blue that they're ceasing hardware manufacturing and literally have no idea what they're doing next represents a mind-blowing caliber of professional incompetence that should have investors calling for Apotheker's ouster.

HP just left a car full of dogs to sit in the hot sun. With the engine running.

sjs• 15 years ago

... and the doors open. If the dogs don't leave can you really blame whoever left them? Nothing can get rid of the remaining webOS dev dogs at this point.

Too bad. I had a lot of hope for webOS but that has been reduced to barely a shred. Such potential squandered by a big broken machine that paid handsomely for it, sang its praises, made huge plans, and then killed it on purpose.

angstrom• 15 years ago

Basically they got it cheap, put a half ass hardware effort behind it, and now are cutting their losses. I wonder if that's how it went over in the board meeting?

officemonkey• 15 years ago

Combine this with the suggestion that WebOS worked better on the iPad than the TouchPad, and I'm left with the impression that HP is going to open up (or possibly just license) WebOS for other tablets.

Or maybe I'm just so enamored of the idea of WebOS that I can't imagine it dying the same death of BeOS and PalmOS.

Tichy• 15 years ago

Thanks for working for us for free. We'd really appreciate if you'd continue to donate your time to strengthen our market position, even though we just slapped you in the face.

thoughtsimple• 15 years ago

Any developer who spends time on webOS now is deluded. It is possible that webOS will continue but are you going to bet your livelihood on that? If the largest PC hardware builder in the world can't build a successful webOS device, who can?

I'm not seeing a lot of possibilities for licensing or outright sale of webOS. Android is free and open source (for the most part.) If you are a hardware manufacturer who wants to own your own OS, fork Android and go from there. If you just want to license an OS, go with Android and forgo paying HP for a license.

The Next Chapter For webOS

Related Stories