“Not just to get into the fast growing smartphone industry, but to end its reliance on Microsoft Windows as the basis for its hardware gadgets,” Frommer writes. “This is an ambitious task, and could obviously have a big payoff if it’s successful. HP will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the project, and will certainly make some noise.”
But the odds of this working are very low, and HP’s plan will probably not be successful,” Frommer writes. “The problem is that WebOS, despite its nice user interface and some nice technical qualities, is a failed platform. Consumers haven’t found a need to buy Palm devices instead of Apple or Android devices… And, as importantly, developers haven’t found a need to develop for WebOS, either. Without unique apps, there’s no reason to have a unique platform.”
Frommer writes, “So the odds are likely that HP’s big bet will be a flop, and that it’ll have to go crawling back to Windows or Android, whichever is the dominant consumer electronics platform in a few years.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, goody, we get to use our new quote already: “HP’s acquisition of Palm means that not only is HP sick and tired of being stuck with and dependent upon perpetual laggard Microsoft, but, more importantly, yet another smartphone/slate PC OS will live to confuse the market. This will significantly benefit the one company that has repeatedly proven its ability to distinguish itself above all others: Apple. The more confused the marketplace, the faster customers will flock to Apple’s trusted brand and quality products.” – MacDailyNews Take, April 28, 2010, 4:45pm EDT