What HP Should Do With WebOS?
HP has announced that it is considering the spin-off or sale of its PC business unit. The announcement was made yesterday, part of the company’s Q3 2011 Earnings results. HP’s PC unit includes the WebOS-based smartphone and tablet computer business.
If you recall, HP inherited WebOS, a Linux distribution originally designed for smartphones, but that can scale to larger computing devices, including tablet computers and desktops.
The Palm Pre line of smartphones and the new TouchPad tablet computer, are very good products, but they have not been doing well in the market place. Apple, with iPhone and the iPad, has a near choke-hold on that market segment. The specific wording about WebOS goes like this:
HP will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. The devices have not met internal milestones and financial targets. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.
WebOS is an awesome Linux distribution, and like Android, it can run on standard desktop computers, as well as it runs on smartphones and tablets. The problem with it, as HP indicated, is not the technology, but the competition, which has a cult-like following.
So, to not let WebOS be a failed distribution, here’s what I think HP should do with WebOS – make it a free, Linux distribution, such that the relationship between it (HP) and WebOS would be akin to that between Red Hat and Fedora, or Canonical and Ubuntu.
Imagine a Linux distribution with all the touch goodies and other awesome features of WebOS. It will set the free software community on fire. Months before this announcement, HP has hinted that it will likely license WebOS to other hardware manufacturers, but making it a free Linux distribution that you could download and install on anything you own, will completely change the desktop operating system landscape.
A move like that will actually help the Pre and TouchPad. I do not own a tablet computer currently, but if HP takes my suggestion, I will be the first one to buy multiple HP TouchPads.
Samuel Espinoza on Mar 11, 2012
Nice informative article, thanks for sharing your information.
Robert on Aug 21, 2011
HP should set it free and let the community shape it and support it as WebOS is a promising platform for set tops, TV’s , tablets and smartphones. This will be the best move ever made by HP, rather than just killing off WebOS.
finid on Aug 21, 2011
But why is HP still running ads for the “new HP TouchPad” with webOS online and on TV?
Jerry on Aug 21, 2011
Leaving tablets and dropping webOS in order to focus on cloud and enterprise solutions makes sense, just don’t get why HP is selling the PC Business. Let’s see what the next few weeks brings.
rich on Aug 21, 2011
Let it go to the great software graveyard in the sky, join the ranks of failed technologies.
nuke on Aug 20, 2011
Come on…
HP want’s to leave the PC area completlt and areas as the tablet, to low margins and to high competition.. So why should they in any way use their resources for something they don’t belive in…
No WebOS will be forgotten as an investment gone wrong…
Chad on Aug 20, 2011
HP is wanting to position itself in software, thus, they should keep WebOS inside HP. Android became a success, despite Google not owning any handsets — well, up until last week, that is. Microsoft did not build PCs. WebOS has the potential to be HP’s “in” with handset developers and other possible computing devices.
finid on Aug 20, 2011
A few months back, HP expressed a willingness to license WebOS to device vendors and with a statement like (source):
It looks like HP will do just that.
And there just might be few, current Android partners who might be willing to dump Android, given Microsoft’s extortion strategies, in favor of WebOS. I have a pretty good feeling that WebOS will be around. The devices have been scuttled, but the OS? fingers crossed.
Bob Harvey on Aug 20, 2011
“The problem with it, as HP indicated, is not the technology, but the competition, which has a cult-like following.”
I’m sorry, but the problem was not the competition – Android has managed to build market share against iPhone quite happily.
The problem was HP – the product and the management. Touchpad was late to market, had no SD card slots, no cellphone version, and you could only communicate with it by installing special drivers. Madness. Then the idiots priced it the same as the iPad. Why?
To beat the market leader in any market you need to be one or both of:
* Twice as good
* Half the price
Touchpad wasn’t and wasn’t.
Coming late to the party with a half-hearted gadget and then blaming the customers who didn’t buy is just breathtaking arrogance. I was really wanting WebOs to succeed, and had postponed my purchasing decision waiting for it. I felt badly let down by HP, and all the bluster about ‘cults’ is no excuse for a badly planned and marketted second rate product, no matter how clever the software.
A. Lurker on Aug 20, 2011
I’m getting pretty tired of these corporate apologists blaming the competition’s “cult-like following” for their own failures in the marketplace. Sure, Apple has acolytes that tattoo little apples on their various body parts, but to think these are sufficient in number to generate Apple’s sales volumes is stupid at best.
Overwhelmingly, people buy Apple products because they work (and work well), look great and do the things people want them to do for the time period they want to do them. Nerds and Linux distro hoppers just can’t get their heads around being happy with something for any length of time, and they’re silly enough to think everyone should think that way. The android crowd itself barely gets a release out without crowing about how great the next one will be. Why should grandma buy now if the next one is going to be so good? Jeez, even Apple’s icons are prettier than the competition’s, which still have a vague look of the Gnome/KDE wars days.
It’s HP’s (and other’s) failure to make the grade with an OS that *could* deliver a best-of-class computing experience (and top-notch visuals) that is at fault here. That and the Open Source world’s constant infighting. If you’re going to win you’re going to have to take the fight to Apple and not be happy with commercials that show how your device, too, can sweep.
And stop the childish ragging about Apple’s “cult”, it’s no worse than Google’s. Just first. Again.
Robert on Aug 20, 2011
Keep in mind, HP is a publicly traded company. The officers of that company are legally required to protect anything which might be considered an asset to the company. Your suggestion could possibly be implemented successfully if the officers framed the decision to “give away” the rights to this software as a public relations move that will return value to the company. But, they will have to convince shareholders that it actually will return value to the company. And then there’s always the risk of shareholders suing the officers for failure to protect company assets by “giving away” this potentially valuable software. I know that from the perspective of most people who read this, there is almost NO CHANCE that this software will ever be a significant financial asset for the HP corporation, but it would be quite easy for a lawyer in court to convince a judge and a jury that it COULD HAVE BEEN if these irresponsible persons hadn’t just “given it away”. It always easier to talk about this kind of stuff when it’s other people’s property and other people who will be responsible for the decision.
finid on Aug 20, 2011
Given away for free and optimized to run on desktops as well, HP could easily build a community around WebOS and upend Microsoft in the process, especially if they provide good applications that could replace those that people use on Windows.
It’s a gamble, but one with a reasonable chance of success.
Greg on Aug 19, 2011
Join forces with Meego!