iHPalm
The big news of 4 hours ago. HP will buy Palm.
I once suggested Nokia should buy Palm, and I still think it would’ve been a good idea (the reasons are the same I listed in that post). That’s not going to happen, but HP buying it might also turn out to be very good, for both HP and the mobile industry.
Unless…
1.
Unless they listen to all the “pundits”, “bloggers”, and other very important bearers of highly useless ideas, and focus on making WebOS a tablet operating system. So that they can then unleash an iPad copy.
This is insane.
As I said about copying the iPhone, copying the iPad won’t work. Hell, copying the iPhone didn’t work for Palm a year ago. People should have, you know, learnt something from that. I hope they have.
Because what they’ve got there at Palm (and HP as of fiscal Q3), is a great mobile operating system. Truly great. And an amazing thing that Palm created, while no one cared (because they were too busy praising the Lor…umm, Steve Jobs), in a very short period of time. By far, in my opinion, the best looking mobile OS of the past year. By far. Also by far the most socially ‘aware’, socially ‘integrated’ if you wish, a full year before any other manufacturer even contemplated the idea of social integration into a mobile OS. Also, I hear it should be one of the easiest platforms to develop for, since all the knowledge you’d need is of web technologies.
I can’t stress this enough. This is a great mobile operating system.
Are you about to say “but you’re this huge Symbian and Nokia fanboy…”? Well, no. I’m not. A fanboy of anything. I’m not a fan, I’m not a boy anymore. So no.
This is just a fact. As is the fact that Symbian is the most mature and flexible mobile operating system. These ideas can, amazingly, coexist inside my brain without it exploding. Strange, I know.
Anyway. The “mobile” in “great mobile OS” should not be forgotten. HP can experiment with iPad copies all they want, but WebOS truly has a big future in mobile, if it’s played right. If they create very good hardware (unlike what Palm was able to make quality-wise) and lure developers to the platform (inspiration for how to do that may come from Nokia’s recent Ovi Store-related moves, or wherever else), and invest in marketing and hype (yes, invest in hype), I think they’ll be on to something big here.
If.
As for the tablet-y stuff… Do you know what a fad is? It’s this. At least it will be for a few more years. The big market right now is that of mobile phones, be they smart or not (just ask Tomi Ahonen when you get the chance, will you?). That’s the big market, that’s the future.
And I don’t mean the future for middle-class Gizmodo-reading Americans. No. I mean, you know, in the world.
Tablets may well sell in the millions per year. Phones will sell in the billions.
If they do get this right, HP will be a very interesting late entrant into this game. One to watch because of the gigantic resources they have, in terms of pure cash, but also supply-chain management and global distribution. They could even finish 2011 in the top 5 of smartphone makers.
They’re the amazing kid no one saw coming on the high end, as ZTE will be on the low end, and Huawei already is in mobile infrastructure.
Interesting times.
If.
2.
Unless they remember their Compaq and Voodoo (remember them?) post-acquisition strategies.
Sure, at this point they do seem to be very focused on WebOS, and that’s naturally a good thing. But we’ll have to hope they don’t forget all their current promises after the deal is finalized.
I think Palm is a good brand, but whether or not they keep it is rather irrelevant. The important thing is for WebOS to live on. On other, new, smartphones.
If this does indeed happen, next year we’ll see the rebirth of WebOS just as Symbian^4 reinvents the Symbian UX and MeeGo steps into the mainstream.
Exciting, no?
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