What does HP have planned for webOS?
November 1st, 2010, 2:50am by JakeAmid sputtering sales of webOS devices (from the internet’s most reliable source of information on Palm sales), the question becomes, what is the HP strategy? While the Pre 2 looks like a decent upgrade, it’s about 6 months overdue and has many observers, from Engadget to Precentral, wondering is this might have been planned for release months sooner but delayed by the HP acquisition. While that may or may not be true,the fact is that it’s been almost a year since Palm could have any claim on having the most compelling smart phone on the market. Having now been eclipsed by half a dozen Droids, the iPhone 4, several Galaxy variants, and even some WP7 devices Palm fans are left wondering if there’s any life left in the platform. Well, while the Pre 2 might have been met with a collective shrug, the reviews of webOS 2.0 have been really good, with none other than Josh Topolsky raving about the mobile OS.
So HP is still in the game. And the game isn’t over, not close. But HP better bring their “A” game early in the early part of 2011, as in CES. I won’t say this is what I’m hoping for, or what I’m expecting, but it’s what I expect HP to do if they want to leap far past WP7, Blackberry & Meego to make it a 3-horse race. Or at least stay in the field.
- Update all webOS devices with HP webOS 2.0
- Release their tablet OS, with 2 tablet sizes (7″ & 10″) at prices that undercut Apple by $50 for the 10″ screen and sell the 7″ version for $350.
- Three new phones. The now-standard 4.1″ monster slate. A 3.1″ w/ portrait keyboard, and a 3.7″ landscape slider. Would like the Pre w/ a bigger screen, but that’s doubtful since the Pre2 will continue on. All 1GHz or better chips.
- Yeah, launch some printers with it.
- Heck, get into the Photoframe thing in a real way. Stick some Pixi-esque hardware in there, a decent 7″ screen and sell it for $200. With no cell radio, a resistive touchscreen & cheap internals, the price can get real aggressive. And it’s a poor man’s tablet in a pinch (think Nook Color).
- Apps up the wazoo. I would not be surprised if HP announced 5000 new apps at launch. They are encouraging all employees to write programs, and they have a lot of folks on payroll.
As some noted, with the slate phones seeming to dominate, it becomes more about software than hardware. HP webOS has the software chops, but Palm hasn’t ante’d up yet in the headline contest. Will they ever?
November 1st, 2010 at 12:09 pm
That would be an impressive, WP7-esque show of force. I don’t know how realistic or effective that would be, but I can certainly envision a contending smartphone platform coming out of nowhere. Look how far Android has come in a year. Like I said elsewhere, it’s gonna be more like the browser wars than the desktop os wars. That said, tablets is a different thing altogether. Apps (and dedicated content) are critical on a tablet, so webOS’s pretty UI is not enough for me.
Palm should look at the Giants for inspiration as a Cindarella story. They were picked to finish 6th in their division this year, which is about where webOS is ranked, generously.
November 1st, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Oh heck, I cross-posted to PreCentral. http://forums.precentral.net/showthread.php?p=2740915
November 1st, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Who cares what HP is up to, leave it to the hackers! Last week BGR reported that there’s an effort to port webOS to the HTC Hero! What would you guys think of running webOS on HTC hardware? Do you think this would be good for the platform? I mean, pretty much any additional users would be good right about now, from what you guys have been saying…
November 1st, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Link isn’t working. But yeah, it would be cool to port it to cutting edge hardware, no idea why they’re starting with the Hero. HP would be wise to let that market be, as it would at best cost them about 1% of sales but acquire some very influential hackers/ developers.
November 1st, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Hero has a processor equivalent to a Pixi, so it should run just fine. Gonna be awesome when the back gesture doesn’t work. I’ve met a few webOS novices that weren’t aware of it, and it’s really not optional…
November 2nd, 2010 at 4:07 pm
Actually forgot to paste the URL into the link — fixed it now…
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:40 pm
The Droid, I can see, but the Hero with webOS is not compelling in and of itself. All in good fun, I guess, and potentially exciting, if it works for other handsets.
Reading over Jake’s wishlist, I can’t help but wonder, is a successful smartphone platform a necessary foundation for a successful tablet? I guess we’ll find out with the webOS and Playbook tablets. But for HP to focus so much energy on a tablet (or a pritner or photoframe), it almost seems like putting the cart before the horse. But who knows. Maybe it’s only happenstance that the only successful tablet ever is essentially a scaled up smartphone.