5 ms·

Will they keep WebOS?

by barredo 15y ago

jinushaun 15y ago
HP has clearly shown they are not good caretakers of WebOS. They best thing they could do is sell it off to someone who could make better use of it. Amazon? Although with the launch of the Fire, they're pretty much stuck on Android now...
- stinkytaco 15y ago
  I don't see why they're stuck on Android. The Android part is pretty hidden and if Amazon has shown an ability to do anything, it's to make wholesale changes without burning the place down. They also can sit on a property until they are ready for it (see: Slow integration of Audible, Goodreads). Indeed, it's possible they would like to get off Android to avoid being beholden to Google.
  - cpeterso 15y ago
    What would Amazon gain from purchasing webOS from HP? I don't see much webOS value for Amazon except Palm patents (to defend the Kindle Fire from Apple patent attacks). Amazon has invested in their own Android App Market and then the Kindle Fire. They have the talent and money to support their own fork of Android (which seems like a possibility) if Google were to stop open-sourcing Android.
    - stinkytaco 15y ago
      Few days on, but I see it similar to how Google felt the need to make Chrome rather than to simply rely on Firefox. If you're selling a property (in this case web services and advertising), wouldn't you want to control every aspect of how that property is viewed? Google wanted to have full control over how users saw their product, so they can make a browser and fully support that browser with all the bells and whistles their product can conceivably offer through that platform. Amazon is the same way. Their device is secondary to the content they are offering, so why not be able to tailor that device fully to the content. The only way you can ever truly make that a reality is if you have your own platform. Of course, even if this is all wrong, it’s not like WebOS will cost that much money. It’s like Amazon picking up a book at the bookstore, it looks interesting, you probably won’t ever read it, but it looks pretty and doesn’t take up space and you can send it off to the thrift store in a couple of years.
The_Sponge 15y ago
Unlikely. Besides the fact that almost no one actually has any faith in it as a platform due to the way HP dropped it, even if they did do a 180, people would still have shaken confidence. Not to mention that there are currently no currently officially selling WebOS devices (except for a few straggling phones in the discount bin), nor plans for new ones. And, when your competitors are Android, WP7, and iOS, getting over the vicious cycle of "no developers making apps which means no people are buying apps which means that no developers are making apps..." is just too much. Even Android was struggling with that and still is on the tablet side even with the Google juggernaut behind it. Plus, even in printers and lower end devices and phones like that, WebOS is overkill. Samsung's Bada and Android are crowding that market too tightly, not to mention Symbian. Maybe we'll see WebOS as an "instant boot" option on a few HP PC models for which it was already in development but that doesn't really count. There's no future for WebOS. It's dead. When your competitors are Microsoft, Google, and Apple, and they already have entrenched hardware and software products in the same market that are innovative and being actively developed, and are directly competing against yours, and are having far more money pumped into them, and have thriving ecosystems, and haven't been officially been killed off, you may just be best off going home.
- firefoxman1 15y ago
  I'm sure you could find dozens of articles from 1996-1998 saying similar things about Apple, but imagine how different the world would be if Jobs listened to them and just declared Apple "dead" and didn't return to the company. WebOS is a great platform and it's not too late to save, but it needs a better company than HP to breathe new life into it. In my opinion, it's much better than iOS for tablets and larger devices (the perfect TV?) but the clock is ticking. Every day HP wastes with decisions like "should we kill one of our largest sources of revenue?" Apple is right next door developing amazing products for tomorrow like Siri.
  - ScottBurson 15y ago
    In fairness, HP never proposed to "kill one of its largest sources of revenue". The idea was to get some cash by selling or spinning off a relatively low-margin division. Killing it would be ridiculous. IBM certainly didn't "kill" its PC division; Lenovo is now the #2 vendor.
thought_alarm 15y ago
WebOS has suffered from severe performance and stability problems for three years, with no solution in sight. This was demonstrated both when the WebOS application layer received a 2X performance boost when ported to WebKit on iOS, and again when Android was ported to the TouchPad hardware and was found to be quite a lot faster than WebOS. It's quite clear that it is a fundamentally flawed architecture without a future. It's too bad; there's some interesting stuff going on in the application layer, but the underlying OS is a complete turkey.
- ScottBurson 15y ago
  Agreed (as a former Pre user). I think they should rip out whatever kernel they're using and replace it with BeOS, which has wonderful real-time and multitasking behavior.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- soapdog 15y ago
  It was not "WebOS Application layer" that was ported to WebKit on iOS, it was a simple Enyo app running. WebOS is a great OS. I have a Nexus S and an iPhone but I still use my old Palm Pre2 because I think the usability of WebOS is far greater than iOS or Android (and I am a developer for both platforms). People tend to dismiss WebOS without ever touching a device. Yes, my Pre2 is not as fast as my Nexus S but guess what, for my daily tasks of emailing, web, agenda, evernotes and ebooks it is GREAT! The OS has a better experience and the development framework rocks. Enyo is wonderful, I wish it was open source. You speak of a flawed architecture, I just see a beautiful system with a wonderful paradigm (the cards) that is aesthetically pleasing and a joy to develop for. If I could get my hands on a Pre3 or a TouchPad, I would buy it instantly but unfortunately, they are not available here.

Will they keep WebOS?

by barredo 15y ago

Will they keep WebOS?

HP has clearly shown they are not good caretakers of WebOS. They best thing they could do is sell it off to someone who could make better use of it. Amazon? Although with the launch of the Fire, they're pretty much stuck on Android now...

stinkytaco 15y ago
I don't see why they're stuck on Android. The Android part is pretty hidden and if Amazon has shown an ability to do anything, it's to make wholesale changes without burning the place down. They also can sit on a property until they are ready for it (see: Slow integration of Audible, Goodreads). Indeed, it's possible they would like to get off Android to avoid being beholden to Google.
- cpeterso 15y ago
  What would Amazon gain from purchasing webOS from HP? I don't see much webOS value for Amazon except Palm patents (to defend the Kindle Fire from Apple patent attacks). Amazon has invested in their own Android App Market and then the Kindle Fire. They have the talent and money to support their own fork of Android (which seems like a possibility) if Google were to stop open-sourcing Android.
  - stinkytaco 15y ago
    Few days on, but I see it similar to how Google felt the need to make Chrome rather than to simply rely on Firefox. If you're selling a property (in this case web services and advertising), wouldn't you want to control every aspect of how that property is viewed? Google wanted to have full control over how users saw their product, so they can make a browser and fully support that browser with all the bells and whistles their product can conceivably offer through that platform. Amazon is the same way. Their device is secondary to the content they are offering, so why not be able to tailor that device fully to the content. The only way you can ever truly make that a reality is if you have your own platform. Of course, even if this is all wrong, it’s not like WebOS will cost that much money. It’s like Amazon picking up a book at the bookstore, it looks interesting, you probably won’t ever read it, but it looks pretty and doesn’t take up space and you can send it off to the thrift store in a couple of years.

The_Sponge 15y ago

Unlikely. Besides the fact that almost no one actually has any faith in it as a platform due to the way HP dropped it, even if they did do a 180, people would still have shaken confidence. Not to mention that there are currently no currently officially selling WebOS devices (except for a few straggling phones in the discount bin), nor plans for new ones. And, when your competitors are Android, WP7, and iOS, getting over the vicious cycle of "no developers making apps which means no people are buying apps which means that no developers are making apps..." is just too much. Even Android was struggling with that and still is on the tablet side even with the Google juggernaut behind it. Plus, even in printers and lower end devices and phones like that, WebOS is overkill. Samsung's Bada and Android are crowding that market too tightly, not to mention Symbian. Maybe we'll see WebOS as an "instant boot" option on a few HP PC models for which it was already in development but that doesn't really count. There's no future for WebOS. It's dead. When your competitors are Microsoft, Google, and Apple, and they already have entrenched hardware and software products in the same market that are innovative and being actively developed, and are directly competing against yours, and are having far more money pumped into them, and have thriving ecosystems, and haven't been officially been killed off, you may just be best off going home.

firefoxman1 15y ago
I'm sure you could find dozens of articles from 1996-1998 saying similar things about Apple, but imagine how different the world would be if Jobs listened to them and just declared Apple "dead" and didn't return to the company. WebOS is a great platform and it's not too late to save, but it needs a better company than HP to breathe new life into it. In my opinion, it's much better than iOS for tablets and larger devices (the perfect TV?) but the clock is ticking. Every day HP wastes with decisions like "should we kill one of our largest sources of revenue?" Apple is right next door developing amazing products for tomorrow like Siri.
- ScottBurson 15y ago
  In fairness, HP never proposed to "kill one of its largest sources of revenue". The idea was to get some cash by selling or spinning off a relatively low-margin division. Killing it would be ridiculous. IBM certainly didn't "kill" its PC division; Lenovo is now the #2 vendor.

thought_alarm 15y ago

WebOS has suffered from severe performance and stability problems for three years, with no solution in sight. This was demonstrated both when the WebOS application layer received a 2X performance boost when ported to WebKit on iOS, and again when Android was ported to the TouchPad hardware and was found to be quite a lot faster than WebOS. It's quite clear that it is a fundamentally flawed architecture without a future. It's too bad; there's some interesting stuff going on in the application layer, but the underlying OS is a complete turkey.

ScottBurson 15y ago
Agreed (as a former Pre user). I think they should rip out whatever kernel they're using and replace it with BeOS, which has wonderful real-time and multitasking behavior.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
soapdog 15y ago
It was not "WebOS Application layer" that was ported to WebKit on iOS, it was a simple Enyo app running. WebOS is a great OS. I have a Nexus S and an iPhone but I still use my old Palm Pre2 because I think the usability of WebOS is far greater than iOS or Android (and I am a developer for both platforms). People tend to dismiss WebOS without ever touching a device. Yes, my Pre2 is not as fast as my Nexus S but guess what, for my daily tasks of emailing, web, agenda, evernotes and ebooks it is GREAT! The OS has a better experience and the development framework rocks. Enyo is wonderful, I wish it was open source. You speak of a flawed architecture, I just see a beautiful system with a wonderful paradigm (the cards) that is aesthetically pleasing and a joy to develop for. If I could get my hands on a Pre3 or a TouchPad, I would buy it instantly but unfortunately, they are not available here.