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I don't see any demand for WebOS devices. At this point it would be a niche play and compete with WindowsPhone/BlackBerry/Symbian. Symbian is all but dead, Wind

I don't see any demand for WebOS devices. At this point it would be a niche play and compete with WindowsPhone/BlackBerry/Symbian. Symbian is all but dead, WindowsPhone just has too much steam and with iOS and Android there simply aren't developers caring to spend the time on WebOS.

earl 15y ago
HP just seems incredibly stupid. I mean, they're already $1.2B in on this, and they desperately need apps. Why not spend $50MM, go to a bunch of devs, and commission apps? Offer aggressive rev sharing and a guaranteed minimum $50K. $50K ea is enough to get some people to build out apps and that gets you a thousand apps. If they have to scrap WebOS an extra 4% and change doesn't really make it that much worse of an investment, while if this works, the upside is huge.
- mgkimsal 15y ago
  They could just have gotten an SDK out sooner. That was a huge problem in 2009, and the defense was "we're just little old Palm, we're not big enough to do all that!" (bunk? who knows at that time?). HP, one of the largest companies on the planet, 2 years later, does the same thing - announces product with 6+ months before it's available, with no SDK to develop against for new product. I agree on your notion of payment, but many people would have been happy to do it for $0, but with no SDK, how do you do that? Others would have been happy for 10% of those - $5k to develop some apps, perhaps to some particular requirements from HPalm. Or run an app request forum, set up bounties, let the community vote on them, and pay the winning entries. Yes, in the grand scheme, another few million in developer relations and community building is hardly even a rounding error given what they've put in so far. But hey - why innovate when you can try the same techniques that worked so well 2 years earlier?
cookiecaper 15y ago
If they can get a really slick phone out, or a series of really slick phones, WebOS will make a lot of headway, I think. People are attracted by shiny. If they can manage to get an app store of respectable size and put a lot of marketing behind desirable hardware, they have a good chance, imo.
strmpnk 15y ago
I think a large part of this is that smart phone buyers are likely on either cheap phones (barely hitting android on the lowest end) or contract phones. Signing a two year contract or putting down $600+ to get a phone is not a commitment most people make unless they trust the brand. HP is out of luck with phones IMO... I'd play the TouchPad angle the most and strongly consider doing an iPod touch like device if I were them.
- Steko 15y ago
  I don't think most people care about "brand trust" too much (some do), HTC is one of the most profitable handset makers and most people don't even know the company exists. For most people, they buy what their friend has, what they saw on tv, what the salesguy shoves in their face.
  - strmpnk 15y ago
    The brand in this case has been Android lately. Even so, HTC was successful well before the new wave of smartphone competition because people actually tried phones in stores. I rarely hear about someone picking a phone out in store vs. hearing about phones on the web.

earl 15y ago

HP just seems incredibly stupid. I mean, they're already $1.2B in on this, and they desperately need apps. Why not spend $50MM, go to a bunch of devs, and commission apps? Offer aggressive rev sharing and a guaranteed minimum $50K. $50K ea is enough to get some people to build out apps and that gets you a thousand apps. If they have to scrap WebOS an extra 4% and change doesn't really make it that much worse of an investment, while if this works, the upside is huge.

mgkimsal 15y ago
They could just have gotten an SDK out sooner. That was a huge problem in 2009, and the defense was "we're just little old Palm, we're not big enough to do all that!" (bunk? who knows at that time?). HP, one of the largest companies on the planet, 2 years later, does the same thing - announces product with 6+ months before it's available, with no SDK to develop against for new product. I agree on your notion of payment, but many people would have been happy to do it for $0, but with no SDK, how do you do that? Others would have been happy for 10% of those - $5k to develop some apps, perhaps to some particular requirements from HPalm. Or run an app request forum, set up bounties, let the community vote on them, and pay the winning entries. Yes, in the grand scheme, another few million in developer relations and community building is hardly even a rounding error given what they've put in so far. But hey - why innovate when you can try the same techniques that worked so well 2 years earlier?

cookiecaper 15y ago

If they can get a really slick phone out, or a series of really slick phones, WebOS will make a lot of headway, I think. People are attracted by shiny. If they can manage to get an app store of respectable size and put a lot of marketing behind desirable hardware, they have a good chance, imo.

strmpnk 15y ago

I think a large part of this is that smart phone buyers are likely on either cheap phones (barely hitting android on the lowest end) or contract phones. Signing a two year contract or putting down $600+ to get a phone is not a commitment most people make unless they trust the brand. HP is out of luck with phones IMO... I'd play the TouchPad angle the most and strongly consider doing an iPod touch like device if I were them.

Steko 15y ago
I don't think most people care about "brand trust" too much (some do), HTC is one of the most profitable handset makers and most people don't even know the company exists. For most people, they buy what their friend has, what they saw on tv, what the salesguy shoves in their face.
- strmpnk 15y ago
  The brand in this case has been Android lately. Even so, HTC was successful well before the new wave of smartphone competition because people actually tried phones in stores. I rarely hear about someone picking a phone out in store vs. hearing about phones on the web.