HP May Be Considering Bringing Back the webOS Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

Just when you think the webOS is gone with the wind, there's evidence it might be coming back. HP is hiring dozens of engineers with experience in this operating system.

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[Mitlov]

Insanity. One-OEM OSes are generally not a good idea (yes, I know of the one counterexample)...particularly when HP is offering two separate Windows 8 tablets as well.

HP has the GM problem. Instead of picking a half-dozen products and doing them well, it tries to offer customers every permutation imaginable and ends up spreading its limited R&D funds across six dozen projects..."like butter scraped over too much bread."

[Adama D. Brown]

I don't get why so many companies think that they're capable of producing and promoting their own platforms in a competitive way. Hell, Microsoft isn't getting more than 3.2 percent market share despite a huge amount of promotion they've dumped on Windows Phone, and yet RIM, Firefox, and HP each think that they're qualified to compete with Apple and Google? Yes, in the past top platforms have fallen and been replaced... but mostly when the industry leader has stagnated and failed to embrace new technology. Palm did it, Microsoft, RIM, but there's a vast gulf between them and the current top dogs.

[Mitlov]

I don't get why so many companies think that they're capable of producing and promoting their own platforms in a competitive way. Hell, Microsoft isn't getting more than 3.2 percent market share despite a huge amount of promotion they've dumped on Windows Phone, and yet RIM, Firefox, and HP each think that they're qualified to compete with Apple and Google?

Microsoft's sales of WP in 2012 have been twice that of 2011. It's growing. The only reason it appears stagnant at about 3% market share is because people often lump sales statistics from Windows Mobile (which is no longer in production and is slowly-but-steadily being abandoned by its remaining userbase), which offsets the slow-but-steady growth of WP. When you separate out the WinMo numbers from the WP7 numbers, you can see that WP is slowly building momentum.

That said, I agree with the rest of what you said. There's just not room in the market for a half-dozen different OSes, each championed by just one company.

[Adama D. Brown]

I might be cynical, but I'm not that impressed by going from 1.6 percent to 3.2 percent. It makes for spectacular (and spectacularly out of context) growth numbers, like "277% growth over a year ago!" and the like, but in real terms, those flashy numbers aren't sustainable. The reality of a 1.5 percent growth over a year doesn't make a good case for momentum in such a fast moving arena as the smartphone world.

[Ed Hardy]

I tend to think that HP would be better off going with Windows Phone. What little there was a webOS ecosystem has died over the last year. It would be a tremendous strain for HP to try to re-create at this point. Once burned, twice shy, and all that.

[Mitlov]

I might be cynical, but I'm not that impressed by going from 1.6 percent to 3.2 percent. It makes for spectacular (and spectacularly out of context) growth numbers, like "277% growth over a year ago!" and the like, but in real terms, those flashy numbers aren't sustainable. The reality of a 1.5 percent growth over a year doesn't make a good case for momentum in such a fast moving arena as the smartphone world.

As I've said many times before, let's check back in another year once Windows Phone 8 has been out. Remember that Android was at 2% after year one, 8% after year two, and 42% after year three. There's no guarantee that WP will explode in popularity in 2013, of course, but it's not exactly unprecedented either...particularly with the widespread carrier support that WP8 is receiving that WP7 never really had (comparable to Verizon going all-in with the Motorola Droid line in the third year Android was on the market).

[LandSurveyor]

Maybe they realized what a cock-up their previous CEO made and they want to make a genuine effort of it this time. The OS certainly had the potential but I really think there was some poor thinking in the hardware department. I don't know if it could be a success because the public won't have any confidence in HP to carry it through.

I'll believe it when I can walk into a store and actually see and hold a device. Don't hold your breath.

[jigwashere]

Hmmm...the dozens of engineers HP is hiring that have WebOS experience...what's going through their minds? Have they been unable to find work with a more stable OS? I wonder what incentives HP has offered them.

[Adama D. Brown]

As I've said many times before, let's check back in another year once Windows Phone 8 has been out. Remember that Android was at 2% after year one, 8% after year two, and 42% after year three. There's no guarantee that WP will explode in popularity in 2013, of course, but it's not exactly unprecedented either...particularly with the widespread carrier support that WP8 is receiving that WP7 never really had (comparable to Verizon going all-in with the Motorola Droid line in the third year Android was on the market).

Granted, but Android had an advantage the WP doesn't: there was a natural market demand for a platform that had the modern polish of the iPhone, but wasn't tied to and limited by Apple. The best conditions for an upstart OS to grow is if people are looking for an alternative to what's currently available. Really, that's how the iPhone itself got started; Windows Mobile owned the market, but people wanted something smoother and with less of a learning curve. Against two modern, fully maintained platforms, any upstart is going to have a harder path to grow, whether it's WP8, Blackberry 10, Firefox, or WebOS.

I also agree with Ed that HP should, if they want to build a smartphone, forget about WebOS. It's going to take long enough to develop something anyway, without having to completely rebuild an operating system AND create a place for it in the market in order to do it. Picking up either Windows Phone or Android would drastically drop their difficulty level.