3 ms·
This is one of those times when the answer is simply "no" (before anyone mentions that stupid "law" like it's the first time anyone has seen it). The most you
by cletus 14y ago
This is one of those times when the answer is simply "no" (before anyone mentions that stupid "law" like it's the first time anyone has seen it).
The most you could do I think is skin Android to look and act like WebOS.
There is significant technical work in getting it to work on hardware. It's simply not going to go anywhere until you can get manufacturer and/or carrier buy-in and what's the upside of this over, say, Android or even Windows Phone 8?
Google, Apple and Microsoft can put, have put and are putting significant cloud infrastructure behind their mobile OSs. That's not something easily replicated with another OS and I have little faith that HP can deliver equivalent infrastructure.
The fact of the matter is that WebOS failed on Palm. HP screwed up whatever chance they had by some corporate schism showing that they just weren't that interested (particularly once Hurd was ousted).
I remember seeing the same thing after BeOS failed. Let it go. It's over.
- mortenjorck 14y agoFor smartphones: Definitely too late. For tablets: Maybe not too late. It's over in handhelds, a duopoly between iOS and Android, with a niche duopoly between RIM and Windows Phone. Tablets are going to get much more interesting, though, with balkanized ecosystems forming around Android offshoots such as Amazon's Kindle, and the fallout from Microsoft's surprisingly desperate move of trying to front-load its tablet OS into its flagship desktop OS. The difference between tablets and desktops is going to get blurrier in what we accomplish with them, but perhaps not in how we accomplish it. There's room for a dark horse here.
- clarky07 14y agoI disagree. I think the tablet market is such that it is tied to the phone ecosystem and vice versa. If you can't compete in one, you can't compete in the other. Microsoft might be able to compete with the tie to it's desktop (instead of/in addition to the phone). webOS has no mobile or desktop tie in so it has no chance.
- mortenjorck 14y agoThat's definitely the Apple model, and it applies so long as the tablet market is the iPad market. That will continue to be the case for awhile, but the tablet's conceptual proximity to the desktop (even apart from its forced convergence by Microsoft) is going to make its evolution more complicated than the smartphone market has been with its proximity to the younger, less baggage-heavy mobile / PDA market. Smartphones are reaching the slow part of an S-curve right now. Tablets are just getting started.
- hahainternet 14y agoA remarkably accurate analysis in my eyes.