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HP Moves WebOS From PC Group: What Next?
GMGruman writes "Over the weekend, HP execs posted statements announcing the transfer of WebOS from the PC group that produced the now-killed TouchPad tablet and other mobile devices to HP's Office of Strategy and Technology. Is that a new lifeline for WebOS? Or, as analyst Trip Chowdhry suggested, is WebOS a pawn in a Shakespearean corporate game by HP CEO Léo Apotheker?"
As best I can tell, HP's actions at this point can be most accurately modeled by assuming that somebody accidentally let an Eliza chatbot into an MBA program, and then handed it the reins...
Well, according to Wikipedia, HP's Office of Strategy and Technology has four main functions: (1) steering the company's $3.6 billion research and development investment, (2) fostering the development of the company's global technical community, (3) leading the company's strategy and corporate development efforts, and (4) performing worldwide corporate marketing activities. Under this office is HP Labs, the research arm of HP. Founded in 1966, HP Labs's function is to deliver new technologies and to create business opportunities that go beyond HP's current strategies. An example of recent HP Lab technology includes the Memory spot chip. HP IdeaLab further provides a web forum on early-state innovations to encourage open feedback from consumers and the development community.
It is hard to say at this point what could it mean to WebOS but I've heard rumors about some experiments with Android at HP. Some speculate that HP is thinking about making the WebOS just a thin UI layer on top of Android, just like Mac OS X did with UNIX. It may seem strange at first but after thinking about it for a while it could be the only way that HP could survive in the not so distant future after the Apple-Google war is over and still have original software advantage without the hassle to develop and maintain the entire operating system stack.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
Maybe they are going to sell a naked pc group and a naked WebOS very soon!
Not to hurt anyone.
'Tis indeed a drama, but the real telling question is: To whom does the WebOS division/group/team report in the organization?
The answer to that question often speaks volumes for future plans for a line of business.
You have the right to remain silent. If you don't, anything you say will be misquoted and used against you.
So who exactly would be interested in licensing Web OS?
Apple fanboys/girls get their say, no matter how ludicrous on Apple articles and here I am again.
I am, unashamedly, a "fan" of HP's tx and tm series tablets. They were / are amazing, and some specced almost as good as desktop replacements. I can't believe how HP put no enthusiasm whatsoever behind selling these products, I remember thinking how economies of scale we going to bring me loads more of this type of machine in the years to come, because I couldn't imagine anybody not laptops or tablets not liking these things.
Now I have some idea - HP weren't really "behind" any of these things, like for example Apple, who obviously love themselves and what they do.
My suggestion: Spin off the PC business to me, and I'll give you a percentage of my sales. Just keep making upgraded tx- and tm- clones, with the innards to rival current platforms, a range of sizes to match the wallet, and let someone with enthusiasm show them to people in an Apple shop. Show them folded playing Angry Birds or using Facebook with the Win7 on-screen keyboard, the unfold it and compile something.
Start Maya (on models with graphics card!) and design something with the pen. Use a vector sketch program to demo pressure sensitive pens. Flaming sell the things! All the things I've described would have sold the machine I was using at the time, if I'd wanted to sell it. I've been offered more than retail for my tx2530ea. No chance. That's my pocket Oblivion thank you.
Posted from an Acer 6920G with Radeon 3650 overclocked.... Now imagine what a HP tablet with a 16" screen and the same spec would feel like... nothing if not warm...
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...they should open source it and let another organization do something with it. Mozilla would be a prime candidate, since that's basically what they did with the remains of netscape.
WebOS has a lot going for it, in the sense that its main API is based on Javascript/Html5, which lends itself well to being opened up. Android may be open source, but building it on java resulted in it being less than open.
Sorry. That post made sense when I wrote it.
I hereby declare that although I'm too smashed to be posting tonight, I promise that if you persevere, you'll find some good points in my OP. Here are some of the less obvious clarifications-
"show them to people in an Apple-like shop. Show them folded up playing Angry Birds or use Facebook on the Windows 7 on screen keyboard, then unfold it and compile something.
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If you've read this far, I salute you.
I will gratefully assume anybody replying to this has now comprehended my full article (lol).
There's an extra comma in the first sentence, guesses get points. Also, "I remember thinking how economies of scale were going to bring me loads more of this type of machine in the years to come, because I couldn't imagine anybody who likes laptops or tablets not liking these things."
Thanks, and sorry again for tonight's post. I shouldn't really post in this state, but my OP is good, it's just much worsely written than most...
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[translation]
Since HP is no longer making computers, who cares which software division this moves in to?
They won't have anything to bundle it with, and thus no way to trick new users into existence.
HP have a long history of blunders. They are a bit like Shark Tank, but backwards. They embrace the dogs and bury the gems.
The more recent meltdown has put WebOS in some mighty fine company - presuming HP continues destroying it.
HP said it was going to keep WebOS and divest PC/touchpad/phone hardware, so that just seems a sensible step in that direction: move the part it's keeping out from under the part it's getting rid of.
Don't read too much into this. Every business unit has to go somewhere in the org chart, and OS&T is sometimes used as a place to park BU's in transition.
HP seems to have become akin to a black hole (or Galactus), devouring other companies and permanently destroying them in the process. OK, it was Compaq that engulfed DEC, but then HP engulfed Compaq. Now it has done the same to 3Com, Palm, and even its own industry-leading microcomputer division seems destined for the singularity.
Definitely part of the problem here is Léo Apotheker, the guy currently in charge of the trainwreck that is HP. I like the commentary quoted in the NY Times that likens him to hypothetical former Boeing exec taking over Ford, then announcing that Ford was going to make planes instead.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The one difference I could see between Apple and Oracle is that Apple might actually bring some WebOS ideas into iOS... not quite sure which ones though, people loved WebOS notifications but Apple use overhauled that. Perhaps some kind of hybrid...
I can see Apple and/or Microsoft wanting WebOS patents though. It seems like they would be more useful than Motorola patents for the long term.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I really liked WebOS, I was always hoping it would come in at least second or third place in the mobile OS space....
The problem I see for WebOS now, is that unless it leaves HP who would buy a new device based on it? How would you be able to trust that HP would not kill it off in a month or two, all over again if it did not sell well?
A WebOS shell atop Android as others have suggested seems possibly like something they might put more backbone into. But then with the PC division going, any new hardware is potentially ballast to the leadership at HP.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Taco should have fired him before leaving slashdot.
...positioning things so they can sell it off. Move it out of the line organization, into a special headquarters group, then sell it.
Re-arrange, re-arrange ....
http://studentsforliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/titanic-movie-wallpapers-images-picture-photo-14.jpg
I only ask this because it seems like the same desperate grasping kind of maneuver.
Incidentally, if HP tanks, who will own the BeOS rights?
ie: Palm bought Be Inc. and then HP bought Palm...
Maybe it's a Be Inc. corporate virus spreading.....
It just infects companies who consume the previously infected 'host' .
Perhaps there's a niche for the Ford TriMotor?
The webos shell would make a great UI for VMS.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
I posted this some time ago on the HP Calculator Museum forum and I think it still stands - It sadly reminds me of a once great British brand, GEC, built up over decades by the single-minded and famously penny concious Arnold Weinstock up to become Britain's largest and most profitable diversified technology company and a world leader in many fields. GEC succumbed to short-termist profit demands from gung-ho management and institutional shareholders. They saw in the 1990s, high profit margins from their telecommunications divisions, mainly due the expansion of the internet and subsequent dot-com boom. They decided this would be their "core business" and divested themselves of all the other divisions of the company which at that point were less profitable. They renamed the company "Marconi" and for a couple of years were popular investment due to high dividends. When the dot-com bubble burst and the telecoms equipment market went flat they had nothing to fall back on and within 10 years of being the largest conglomerate in the UK, they went bust. The old GEC was able to trade on its reputation for innovative, quality products and its wide portfolio of product types from components to systems allowed them access to the majority of markets and to cross-sell products. Further, the company's size allowed them to recruit in quantity the best engineers and designers who would then cross-fertilise ideas and solutions, even between separate businesses within the group. The parallels with HP are compelling and sad for me as we seem to learn nothing from historical errors of management. Is a time when enterprises and governments worldwide are reducing spending the right time to put all your eggs in the basket of enterprise level computers and software? Especially when an upturn in the market doesn't seem to be in near sight. When a company has invested heavily in acquiring a software platform (WebOS) which has a number of advantages over the market leaders and then further invested in providing an excellent tablet and phone platform for it, is it wise to withdraw the product 2 months after launch? It all comes down to short-term profit from a quick sale of businesses and instant cash injections resulting in large management bonuses. It is this greed and near-sightedness which is a fatal flaw in our current market system. I do hope that the HP name survives as it is a brand with a tradition to be proud of and of course I think it would be a crying shame if the last maker of RPN calculators were to cease production. I can't help but feel pessimistic though. The rot started with outsourcing in the 1990s after John Young retired. I think Bill and Dave will be turning in their graves.
"You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead!" - Stan Laurel
no real big surprise -- Microsoft spun off a bunch of Windows people in 1992 to create the MOS group when the Internet went public. The old days, when Billg would say, OS/2 or Windows, nix OS/2 and focus on Windows; a 180 degree turn, and a 90 degree turn.