WebOS: Coming Eventually to a Non-HP Device Near You?
By Harry McCracken | Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Here at Qualcomm’s Uplinq conference, reporter Kevin Maney is interviewing Jon Rubinstein, former head of Palm and now the guy in charge of HP’s WebOS business. Rubinstein did all the things you’d expect he’d do–he brandished two WebOs phones (the new Veer and upcoming Pre3), showed off a TouchPad tablet, and ran a demo video. Fine. But when Maney asked him whether HP would be willing to license WebOS to other companies, he said that the company had no interest in getting into the licensing game. And then he hedged a bit: he said that it might be interested in working with “one or two special companies.”
It’s an interesting prospect. Everyone always assumes that broad licensing of a software platform is a surer road to success than limiting it to your own devices, but history doesn’t really bear that out. In fact, Palm history doesn’t bear that out: for a while, Palm licensed its Palm OS to companies large (Sony) and small (HandEra), and the whole effort eventually withered away. So I don’t think the fate of WebOS rests on HP’s willingness to allow other manufacturers to get their hands on it.
But despite HP’s scale–which HP execs keep reminding us of every time they discuss WebOS–it’s going to be a major challenge for it to gain traction against the established dominance of the iPad and impending ubiquity of Android tablets. Another interesting device or two from a company that isn’t HP might help.
Rubinstein didn’t have much to say about what sort of interesting companies he was thinking of, but it sounded like ones that go after markets which HP isn’t otherwise pursuing are more likely than ones that want to build something that’s pretty much like a TouchPad. I like WebOS, want it to succeed, and am worried about it doing so without help–so I’m taking Rubinstein’s comments as good news. Or at least as opening up the possibility of good news.
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June 1st, 2011 at 12:49 pm
I'm sure that lucky one or two companies are tripping over themselves to jump on this fast moving freight train of an OS!
I mean, hitching its wagon to WebOS did wonders for Palm.
June 1st, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Of course, on the other side of the coin, other manufacturers would want to license the OS only if the TouchPad was "desirable" by the marketplace because it could also DO all the myriad of things that the other tablet does.
But I really want to see the TouchPad be successful also. Having three good options might be much better than two that polarizes people into either/or camps.
June 1st, 2011 at 4:32 pm
OS licensing is a very tricky game in an arena full of tech giants. That's why Google stayed away from this business when it bought and relaunched the Android OS in 2005. But this is just for now. Five years from now (with the increasing hype of social media and cloud computing), the OS market will eventually change and vendors will have to evolve themselves to compete. This is where HP WebOS could enter and challenge others.
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October 20th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
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December 16th, 2011 at 12:20 am
Well, they now what they want.
January 11th, 2012 at 8:12 am
With the range of tablets in the market, it is no wonder that they wish to have control over their OS license. But if they don't find a way to license it, others would. Kindle in Color
January 17th, 2012 at 5:35 am
Ipad and Androids are still going to rule the world in my opinion
January 17th, 2012 at 5:37 am
I hope HP doesnt go the Palm way.
February 4th, 2012 at 1:29 am
I really think this is there market strategy especially with the advancement of technology.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:51 pm
I don't know why we need another OS when we have Android and Apple. Heck, I still can't figure out why so many people pick the iPhone over the Android phones. I do like to watch YouTube videos on my Android phone about <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtjHztvKukU
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February 7th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
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