“Samsung Electronics… reportedly has already recruited HP’s ex-vice president of PSG [Personal Services Group] marketing Raymond Wah to handle Samsung’s PC sales, and the company is also reportedly considering purchasing webOS to compete head on against Apple and Google, according to sources from notebook players,” Max Wang, Aaron Lee, and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes.
“HP’s webOS may be the target that Samsung has the most interest in,” Wang, Lee, and Tsai report. “In addition, Google’s acquisition of Motorola, which may seriously threaten hardware brand vendors, could also trigger Samsung to purchase webOS as a counter measure, the sources added.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
At last some intelligent Samdungery decisions of quality.
I hope someone buys it. If Apple won’t buy it, then I hope Samsung makes the most of it to produce a phone that’s not a direct rip off of the iPhone and along the way give the iPhone some real competitive pressure. It’s all good. Sometimes Apple has to be goaded to make improvements to iOS, otherwise Scott Forstall might just fall asleep at the wheel.
I’ve always liked webOS and would hate to see it just disappear. I hope someone picks it up.
Or they can just start using it without permission, and claim prior art from the Flash Gordon (B&W) serials.
+1
I think this would be a perfect fit. A Samsung tablet with a good OS would be something to consider.
Third time’s the charm…
Even if Samsung decides to purchase webOS, it will have wasted considerable investment in the Android ecosystem and will be well behind its competitors in terms of developing its own ecosystem.
If webOS is so great, then why is HP willing to dump the whole mobile effort that they built around it?
HP current management no longer has the strategy or patience to front another losing proposition for the same reason they’re ditching race to the bottom PC’s. And people aren’t willing to spend the same on alternative tablets as the gold standard iPad. So the profit margins ain’t worth all the bother. This shakeout was always going to occur since there are only so many slots available. I predict 3 tablets will prevail – iPad, Windows 8 and either WebOS or Android. (Certainly not RIM’s Playbok.). Amazon though is a real possibility since they have more of an ecosystem and appeal than most.
HP hired a new CEO who has no clue how to compete in the hardware market.
I expect HP to become just like SAP, maybe not a bad thing financially speaking but def a shell of its former self.
Considering their sequence of court losses, I think it’s about time for Samsung to mull over selling itself to Apple. 😎
Samsung: You are soooo screwed, and you know it.
Actually, this may be another part of why Samsung would be interested in webOS. If they could get the IP protection from the Palm patents HP now has, they could push back meaningfully against Apple. (And, hopefully, do something original for a change so they don’t get into so much trouble for copying Apple so much.)
I thought that HP was only dumping the hardware. They still say they are going to bring the OS to desktops.
They may however license webos out to Samsung or anybody else who wants it, but I don’t think it is for sale.
Samsung currently has too many vulnerabilities. Apple of course keeps inventing the future, so Samsung is always one copy step back. Since they and their OS providers are copying, the courts could shut them down at any time.
Then Google could very well pull a plays-for-sure on them.
Switching to WebOS, whether Licensed or bought would make their position more secure. And in a wonderful irony, the Android OS would loose their best OEM, and face yet another higher quality competitor.
I thought this rumor was debunked last week.