HP Buys Palm

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/28/hp-buys-palm/

So it looks like webOS isn't dying but may actually flourish with a lot more capital behind it; my guess is that HP saw what Dell was working on in WM7 / Android land and wanted to do something other than a me-too smartphone themselves.

And, of particular historical note, the makers of the greatest pre-smartphone-era PDA brands, the Palm Tungsten and the HP iPAQ, are now now united under one banner - it's like Microsoft buying Apple in that sense.

Platform-wise, I think this means we may have a real party going in 2011 - Windows Phone 7's prospects may actually dim a bit with this, but with RIM's fairly promising-looking BlackBerry OS 6 announcement yesterday and webOS getting access to all of HP's money and manufacturing muscle, it seems almost certain that there'll still be some very good smartphone options other than iPhone and Android around next year.
 

sfrrr

状元
Omigod. I received the very first Palm (Palm Pocket??) the month before they hit the shelves and had every model up to the Lifeline (or whatever they called it). Also several Springummy models (what did they call them?).I also received the very first iPAQs (when they belonged to Compaq, I believe) long before they were released to the public and I have had at least one iPAQ every year up to now. I also had HP's very first tiptoe into the tablet market (used it for a few years and loved it). I'm playing around now with Android, but have never once tried Web OS.

HP buying Palm gives me a funny feeling, something like solastalgia: n. Distress or melancholy caused by a significant change to one's local environment. (Paul McFedries Word Spy neologism of the day). I'm afraid it's a sign of aging (the wisdom of experience?). But HP has always been so loyal to Windows.

This is fascinating. In some ways, PDAs and mobile phones followed the opposite platform path than many other technologies: Instead of several technologies coming at the beginning of a category's evolution, and, thereafter, the sharks eating each other until only one or two are left, the mobile phone/PDA market started with relatively few platforms, then compresed even further and now, it's opening up into more than a few major OS technologies.

To be continued--when Apple buys Microsoft.
 

character

状元
IMO, $1.2 billion is just mad money to companies such as HP or IBM. HP bought Palm not only because they might be able to do something with it, but also to keep someone else from having Palm (and Palm's IP).

I suspect we'll see devices capable of running webOS and some other OS to minimize the risk of webOS not becoming more popular.
 

gato

状元
A senior exec at HP used to be the CEO at Palm and joined HP in 2005. May bode well for WebOS, though I still think Nokia would have been a better fit. HP has almost no mobile business right now.

http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/28/bio-t ... y-hp-palm/
Meet the mastermind of HP-Palm: Todd Bradley
April 28, 2010

Todd Bradley, the executive vice president for Hewlett-Packard’s Personal Systems Group—which includes everything from PCs to mobile devices, workstations, personal storage solutions and Internet services—came to HP in the summer of 2005 a few months after he left a CEO position at a company then called PalmOne. Bradley was recruited by HP chief executive officer Mark Hurd, who had just taken over the company after the widely-publicized resignation of Carly Fiorina, and his hire was one of the first major changes Hurd put into effect at HP.

Bradley had a four-year stint at Palm, where he was seen as resolving the supply-chain issues that beleaguered the handheld-computer manufacturer in the early 2000s. Palm, then best known as a maker of handheld personal digital assistants — a category that barely exists anymore — had had a string of struggles such as building up an inventory that exceeded customer demand, which lead to price cuts and cash issues for the company. In 2005, Bradley stepped down as the chief executive officer as the company was looking for a new direction in the wireless market, focusing on its line of Treo phones.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10 ... books.html
HP's purchase of Palm could lead to WebOS tablets, netbooks
Published: 07:20 PM EST

During a conference call about HP's acquisition of Palm Wednesday, Todd Bradley, executive VP of HP's Personal Systems Group, said that there are "a lot of opportunities" with the purchase. Namely, he said, HP could use the WebOS mobile operating system as a touchscreen interface for new hardware such as a tablet or netbook.

Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein and Brian Humphries, HP's senior VP of Strategy and Corporate Development, spoke with Joshua Topolsky of Engadget Wednesday, and revealed that HP plans to "double down on WebOS," which is considered the "prized asset" of the acquisition. The two reportedly mentioned the scalability of WebOS, implying that HP plans to bring the platform to multiple hardware form factors. HP even said it has already tested WebOS for its scalability.
 

Dr.Grace

秀才
I was very encouraged by this chat between one of HP's CTOs, Phil McKinney, and Palm's developer reps, Ben and Dion, in which McKinney describes HP's great enthusiasm for webOS on phones and other mobile devices. I'd think that the market for apps will certainly grow!


http://www.vimeo.com/13012018
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Well it's certainly worth watching... interesting aspect to this now is that we've got all of the powers of the PC world other than Apple finally deciding to get serious about smartphones at about the same time: Dell with its Android tablets, HP with webOS, Microsoft with Windows Phone 7, Intel with MeeGo, NVidia, Acer... seems like boardrooms around the world were simultaneously hit by sparks of lightning.
 

character

状元
mikelove said:
Well it's certainly worth watching... interesting aspect to this now is that we've got all of the powers of the PC world other than Apple finally deciding to get serious about smartphones at about the same time: Dell with its Android tablets, HP with webOS, Microsoft with Windows Phone 7, Intel with MeeGo, NVidia, Acer... seems like boardrooms around the world were simultaneously hit by sparks of lightning.
In some ways it was just the effect of trends:

1) The best-selling PC type going from desktop to laptop to netbook in what, 5 years? They probably projected from that trend to iPhone-like devices.
2) Internet access outside the US booming on cell phones (and many people outside the US skipping PCs altogether)
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
character said:
1) The best-selling PC type going from desktop to laptop to netbook in what, 5 years? They probably projected from that trend to iPhone-like devices.

There was also a time when it seemed like we might go directly from previous-generation smartphones to UMPCs, back when it seemed like none of the mobile OS companies could get their act together - some of them may have been waiting on that only to realize it may never happen. (UMPCs were probably the biggest reason I stupidly kept promising a desktop version was right around the corner all of those years ago - we planned to do one as soon as that category started to take off)
 

character

状元
mikelove said:
There was also a time when it seemed like we might go directly from previous-generation smartphones to UMPCs, back when it seemed like none of the mobile OS companies could get their act together - some of them may have been waiting on that only to realize it may never happen.
The smartphone-as-a-PC is getting close, hardware-wise. 1GB of memory, 1GHz+ dual-core processors, 32GB+ of flash... Say MS came out with a phone spec which allowed for a wireless dock supporting USB and HDMI. Then one could have a phone which could support an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Use the cloud for additional storage and web-based applications. Looks like such a setup could barely support 32bit Windows 7 and a couple native apps. http://windows.microsoft.com/systemrequirements The wireless dock would IMO be important to let users answer a call or take their phone with them when they left their desk without a lot of unplugging.
 
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