Bombshell just dropped. HP is discontinuing all webOS phones and the Touchpad. Wow. I had the pleasure of using the Touchpad this past weekend; my father in-law bought one (thank goodness he left the wrapping on). It’s a very smooth and beautiful experience, but there’s one big problem. Not many Apps, and people want Apps.
You see, its a tough go for anyone competing against Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android for two reasons…they both have a huge user base and because of that user base they developers eager to get their apps on each platform. So to compete you have to have both a great device and OS that people want and popular apps (and lots of them). HP has a great device and OS; WebOS is fantastic. But they’re late to the game and therefore fighting a extremely uphill battle for both consumer and developer attention. Imagine a company trying to compete with Microsoft or Apple in the computer/laptop market in the 90s based on a new OS. No matter how good the OS is or the computer it didn’t have a chance.
So what’s next for webOS? Well, Google just bought Motorola Mobility and some say that their Android partners like Samsung, HTC, and others a rattled. HP should license webOS as an alternative. Like I said, its a great OS, more secure than Android, and easy to develop for. These device manufacturers could create the push HP needs and peek the interest of developers. The result might be a great OS on a bunch of devices and a healthy developer community. Could happen, just sayin’.
