HP will hold off on deciding the fate of WebOS

Norman Witte III 9 Nov, 2011 at 3:13am ET Article published in Tech

Comments

1. 
   9 Nov 2011 ~ 10:29am Cliff_Forster “It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision.”
   
   That's not what they did when they completely gave up on the touchpad after a few weeks, and millions spent in development and marketing? Fast decision maybe?
   
   HP's leadership is completely incompetent.
   
   As much as I love WebOS, it's just too late, Apple and Google have a foothold on the market, and it's not changing. RIM and Microsoft are left at the table fighting over the scraps as it is. And those two really have the only remaining differentiation strategy's for non mainstream platforms. RIM has better push and real time messaging for business clients that demand it, and Microsoft has the old WebOS position of, our phone just does what you need, and it actually has the best facebook integration if that matters to you.
   
   There is not room for a fifth mobile platform. The only way I could see them squeezing something out of WebOS is if HP found a way to convince a pre paid carriers that it is worth having their own software platform for smartphone development to compete with the contract carriers offerings. As it is, pre paid carriers have some compelling offerings in android and RIM phones now, but to have the ability to control a platform and offer your customers a competing smart phone product for the same first cost as contract users typically expect to pay, that might be something that would interest a pre paid carrier if the price is right.
   
   HP took an amazing asset and did nothing with it. Too slow to market. They are not in a position to do anything with it. My opinion, if they try, they are just going to further damage HP's reputation and continue to drive a wedge between themselves and Microsoft. Just sell the asset for penny's on the dollar, and crawl back to Microsoft praying that Windows 8 is going to present them with the opportunity they need to a real viable touch computing platform.
2. 
   9 Nov 2011 ~ 10:55am Linc HP ditching webOS was the stupidest idea they ever had. They blew all the traction they had on the best-looking competitor to iOS. But this is just par for the course lately in the corporate comedy they're writing.
   
   I completely disagree with Cliff (well, except for the "HP is incompetent" part). RIM is fading, MS may or may not ever gain traction, and Android may be dominating the market but it's sure as hell <a href="http://www.asymco.com/2011/11/03/revolutionary-user-interfaces/&quot; rel="nofollow">not helping the pocketbooks</a> of most of the companies making them. Apple, Samsung, RIM and HTC have all the profit, and the latter 3 COMBINED make half of what Apple does.
   
   RIM and Apple are the only ones controlling the whole stack, and RIM sucks at it. If HP stepped back into the fray with an integrated product, they'd be in a tremendous position. There's approximately a 1% chance of that board figuring it out though, especially since they did such an outstanding job of scuttling their developer base.
3. 
   9 Nov 2011 ~ 11:02am djmeph Cliff, I have always held that the fate of WebOS was out of HP's hands all along, from the moment they acquired Palm. In order for them to keep the brand alive they had to be able to provide a device to the loyal users that had been using them since day one, like me. When our contracts came up back in June, there were a solid group of people looking for a new phone to upgrade to, and Sprint for some reason refused to carry any new WebOS phones. You can say whatever you want about management or what you think HP may or may have not done right, but the bottom line is we'll never know if HP could be a viable mobile device provider because Sprint never gave them the chance. It was Sprint, they did not want WebOS to succeed, and they did everything they could to sink the platform.
   
   I disagree wholeheartedly with the presumption that there is no room for a fifth platform. If HP puts together something that is compelling, people will buy their products and use them. It may squeeze out one of the other contenders, but HP definitely has the resources to bring something to market that will blow us away.
4. 
   9 Nov 2011 ~ 2:46pm Cliff_Forster I hope you are both right that there is still room for WebOS. Honestly though, I don't see it happening. I don't think HP has what it takes. As you pointed out, short of making a major investment and becoming a cellular carrier themselves, I don't see them being able to control the market to gain significant penetration. Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, I don't think they are interested in managing another offering.
   
   I hate it, but I think WebOS is pretty much dead. I don't have faith that we will see it gain significant traction. Google can afford to have an inefficient earner right now. For them, it's the long-view, it's about mind-share and long term opportunity. Androids growth is a great success story for Google even if they have failed to optimize their revenue stream thus far. You know, at some point Google is going to convert all those users into marketing gold.
   
   I don't believe HP can afford to do the same. They don't have the diversity required to weather the growth period. HP is a hardware company, and on a good day, a damn fine one. They need to get back to their core competency, and I think they will realize that soon enough. It's a shame, I love WebOS, I want it to succeed, but my reality sense is tingling (and that's rare!)
5. 
   10 Nov 2011 ~ 5:11pm TheAlertHusky I'm going to agree with Cliff_Forster here because I don't think that HP is up to this/ "Has what it takes" because they don't have the funding that lets say google or a different company would need to make the proper investments to have this work out in their favor later on in the runnings of the WebOS.
   
   Also why is my picture the icrontic fedora guy and how do I change it (Only outside of some threads)
6. 
   10 Nov 2011 ~ 5:20pm Ilriyas

   TheAlertHusky wrote:

   I'm going to agree with Cliff_Forster here because I don't think that HP is up to this/ "Has what it takes" because they don't have the funding that lets say google or a different company would need to make the proper investments to have this work out in their favor later on in the runnings of the WebOS.
   
   Also why is my picture the icrontic fedora guy and how do I change it (Only outside of some threads)

   
   Had that same problem.
   
   What I've found is that you need to reply in the actual discussion thread rather than the article thread, as some threads have no article replying is easy and displays your full ID.
7. 
   10 Nov 2011 ~ 6:21pm Linc You must be logged into the forum before commenting on the front page. If it prompts for your email address, it means it doesn't know who you are and you're commenting as a guest.