Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20 and Brian X Chen has a great tick-tock detailing the initial fall – and continuing fall – of WebOS. The interviews are quite telling, including a quote from Paul Mercer:
The HP Pre3 launched in Europe today, and oddly enough, HP had very little to say about it. With the TouchPad price falling like a rock, you’d expect that its intended complementary device — and HP’s flagship phone — would launch with more fanfare. But instead HP let the device land in its EuroStore and gave a short response to PreCentral, the first publication to notice its availability. Either way, the most important thing is that the SIM-free smartphone is ready to roll. → Read More
HP stated from the start that it planned on putting webOS in more than just smartphones and tablets. It foresaw a time when webOS would run printers, netbooks, and the world! Well, the time has come. HP is looking to grow the webOS base and expand into the world of major appliances and automotive.
HP invested $1.2 billion into Palm last year and from an outsider’s standpoint, it’s hard to view that as a wise investment even when considering the 1,500 patents that were part of the deal. The chief product, the webOS TouchPad, is floundering in the marketplace. Spotting a webOS smartphones in the wild is akin to seeing MG using a Xoom. WebOS is a fine operating system, but consumers just haven’t latched on for various reasons. HP is now looking outside the traditional CE realm for help. → Read More
I’d been hoping I wouldn’t have to say this a second time, but here we go again: WebOS is reaching a critical failure point and I doubt the technology will make it through the next two years. Why? Because WebOS just can’t grab the mindshare it needs to flourish.
According to Woot, the deal site sold 612 TouchPads during its impressive $100-off sale. During a similar sale in July, the Motorola Xoom, sold2,288. This, in microcosm, is where the TouchPad and WebOS is headed. → Read More
Earlier today HP introduced its new line of products based on the newly acquired Palm WebOS, including its iPad clone, the TouchPad. Capping off a segment of the presentation where he presented press accolades, former Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein presented the above slide from Laptop Magazine’s OS Bowl boasting, “Yesterday, Laptop Magazine voted us the champion of the OS Bowl.” → Read More
http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=tvZjkxMjrSbou862bptbcCH5hBzgS3iK&version=2 Greg brings us his own hands-on of the HP Touchpad, HP’s latest slate. Check out our full HP/Palm coverage right here. → Read More
It’s official: HP/Palm is releasing a new tablet called the Touchpad. Precentral has some hot news about this new 10-inch Palm slate. It is a touchscreen device running WebOS. It weighs 1.5 pounds and 13mm thick and has a front webcam as well as up to 64GB of storage. Robert Scoble, of all people, also leaked something about the “littlest phone” he’s ever seen, a new Palm Phone that is as big as a pebble. → Read More
Last week, we saw what appeared to be a legit leak of HP’s Topaz and Opal webOS tablets, previously known under the moniker Palmpad. Pre Central has gotten hold of some slightly less exciting, yet still interesting, design documents showing off potential UI ideas. → Read More
A week and a half ago, we were invited to join HP on the morning of February 9 for an “exciting announcement”. But it appears that they’re now also reaching out to others about another event later that day.
This new invite reads: “HP webOS. The future revealed.” Below that, it lists the same February 9 date, but lists the time as being from 7 PM to 9:30 PM. And it will be in the same venues: Fort Mason Center, Herbst Pavillion in San Francisco. → Read More
We know damn well that the Palm’s got some new devices up their sleeves — and come February 9th, we’ll probably know all there is to know about’em. We can take educated guesses as to what those devices will be — but right now, just about the only thing we know for sure is that they’re working on a webOS tablet. This morning, a few eagle-eyed rumormill lurkers have spotted the tiniest hint of a new, non-tablet device: a 4G/LTE device built for Verizon. → Read More
We’ve just been invited to an HP event on February 9 in San Francisco. The topic? webOS, according to the invitation.
The invite’s main header reads: “Think big. Think small. Think beyond.” Could this mean an expansion of webOS to many types of devices? At the very least, we should get the skinny on the full webOS 2.0 release, which is only available in a very limited way thus far. → Read More
Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein was elected to join Amazon’s board, the company announced today via an SEC filing. Rubisntein is currently a senior VP and general manager at Hewlett-Packard, following HP’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm earlier this year.
Before joining Palm, Rubinstein was in charge of Apple’s iPod division and was the company’s senior hardware executive. At Palm, he tried to take on his former employer by developing WebOS smartphones which compete with the iPhone. Going after Apple took him off Steve Jobs’ Christmas list. → Read More
Great news for WebOS fans this morning, as the Palm Pre 2 is now finally available in the US. It’s not with any carriers right now (it’s expected to eventually head to Verizon), but that just means the eager can purchase it unlocked. How much will it cost you? The merest of $450, good sir! Where can you get it from? Right here! For those not in the know, it rocks a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, 16GB internal storage, a 3.1″ 320 x 480 touchscreen, 5MP camera with LED Flash, Bluetooth, WiFi b/g, and GPS, all backed up by the spankin’ new HP webOS 2.0. [via Slashgear] → Read More
“It was a disaster.”
That’s how Palm head (now a part of HP) Jon Rubinstein described Apple when he joined the company in the 1990s after they acquired NeXT. That was about six months before Steve Jobs came back, Rubinstein said. “Basically, the company was going out of business. It had lost its way, its focus,” he continued.
Rubinstein sat down to discuss Palm and HP with John Battelle today at the Web 2.0 Summit. But Battelle decided to focus on Rubinstein’s work with Apple first. → Read More
Industry sources at Foxconn Technology and Compal Communications are stating that they are currently manufacturing multiple WebOS devices including the so-called PalmPad. → Read More
Say what you will about Spotify‘s delayed US launch or whether its freemium model is ultimately flawed, but when it comes to rolling out mobile clients, the music streaming service can’t be bettered. While other companies set the bar at an iPhone app (and possibly Android), Spotify, with its European roots, has already gone where many dare not, developing a fully-fledged client for Nokia’s Symbian, along with iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.
Today, the company has announced a version for Palm’s webOS, a niche platform if there ever was one. Although with HP’s acquisition of Palm, that will hopefully change. It’s also a particularly US-centric brand, so that could be telling in itself. On that note, it’s curious that RIM’s BlackBerry is still missing in action. Any theories on why? Jump in on the comments. → Read More
Back in August, while we were in the middle of confirming an exodus of talent from Palm after their acquisition by HP, I specifically asked them about the status of two guys: Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. Palm refused to say anything about them. Perhaps now we know why.
As both have confirmed on their personal blogs today, as well as the HP/Palm Dev Center blog, they’re leaving the company as well. This is a big blow to the Palm platform as the two lead the important developer relations team for the company. It was their jobs to get people excited and developing for webOS. Now that task falls to HP. → Read More
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