Well, if we had one of those obnoxious "BREAKING!"-tags on OSNews, this would definitely fit the bill. While we were busy discussing whether HTC or Lenovo would snap up Palm, another major worldwide computer company picked up the Sunnyvale-based mobile outfit: Hewlett-Packard has bought Palm. Updates from the conference call inside.
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2007-04-05
RE: Everyone wants a share
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Okay:
PC: Apple was a good innovator for a while
( read: up until about 1985, then again, artistically, with OS X ). The best thing that came out of Apple was BeOS, and that was made by ex-Apple employees.
Laptops: Apple was pretty late to the scene, here and haven't done much enviable innovation.
Phones: The ONLY thing the iPhone brings to the market is a cute little package. The iPhone has no significant innovations over my Palm Treo 650. Apple did do one thing very well, however: trick people into paying MUCH higher rates to AT&T for the SAME service ( do some pricing! ).
Tablets: Here, the biggest innovator, IMHO, was Be, INC. I actually owned one of the BeIA Tablet prototypes, it was a very nice device and MUCH more capable than the iPad ( adjusting for the era, mind you ). Seriously, there isn't anything innovative about the iPad, it is just another gimmick. And Apple is not an innovator here, either.
Seriously, though, Apple doesn't need to innovate. They figured this out: If you make it pretty, those without knowledge will buy it in droves. If all those people buy it in droves, more developers will come which will make things better for everyone.
Problem, now, is that Apple doesn't know how to support an open development environment, the company is run by lawyers, it seems.
The company is a real A** HOLE in the market place.
--The loon
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And like that, HP is a major player in the smartphone market. Now they can make the hardware and the software and deliver a seamless experience.
If they're smart, they'll hire someone to come up with some sexy designs and make certain they get something great to market within a year.
Member since:2005-06-29
I'm sure Palm already has a number of very sexy designs and prototypes ready to be turned into products - they just couldn't before due to the lack of money.
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Heck, didn't even think of that. Although, isn't the Slate Intel Atom? "
So? webOS is just a specialized Linux distribution that uses many common components: WebKit, SDL, ... .
Worst-case scenario are PDK apps. Those need to be recompiled. Oooh, big deal...
The rest is JavaScript.
Member since:2005-07-13
HP likely bought Palm for their patent portfolio. While Palm's existing presence in the market does help HP get a product out the door faster, i am thinking its more for Palm's IP. Then again, this makes sure right off the bat that HP beats Dell in the mobile phone arena, if based on nothing than existing user base.
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AFAIK the first attempt of HP at a smartphone was when it parterned with Nokia to modify the 200LX into the bulky OmniGo 700LX as a partner device and dock for the Nokia 2110, which I speculated Nokia then perfected into the very first 9000 Communicator.
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Back in an earlier company I worked for, we were quite impressed with proliant servers compared to HP's earlier "netserver" line. Same price point, but with proliant you got a much more solid and well thought out hardware story.
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Well, Compaq and HP where in the same market already, whereas HP and Palm aren't. It would make a lot more sense to "cannibalize" a competitor who you acquire if they're already making the same (type of) product you are, with the same technology at a similar price-point, targeting the same market, etc.
Member since:2005-07-13
it still happens. they could pull a Dell, and make their own phones (or sell their own phones) and only have bought palm so that they wouldn't run into patent issues (or as many) and release their own stuff. Palm has a ton of intellectual property that is worth a lot...
buti don't see that happeneing, and since i love WebOS I can't wait to see how it turns out with a fresh injection of HP's money 
Member since:2005-08-27
Aplha servers and Tru64 Unix. Sure Compaq didn't create them but rather acquired them from DEC, but Compaq didn't seem to want to kill the line of RISC processor and corresponding OS. As soon as HP came into the picture, plans were thrown out of the window. I recall back in 2000, that we were promised a roadmap that extended through 2007. We were promised the EV7 and likely EV78. These promises offered by HP, were killed.
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It sure would be nice if Access would open up BeOS sure the code is old and haiku has already surpassed it but that is the point unless it has been maintained its pretty useless at this point except for improving Haiku by actually having the original implementations instead of just header files to go by...
Some of the kernel stuff such as ISA detection and drivers as well as optimized codecs would still be of some use
Member since:2005-09-14
The problem is, BeOS had quite a few pieces of code licensed from third parties in it. If Access had any desire to open the code, they'd first have to do a detailed audit to find and rip out any such pieces. Since that also covers things like the codecs that came with BeOS (the only one of which was actually any good being Indeo, which is for all practical intents and purposes dead), it's by and large not useful and not worth the effort. Haiku in particular would see pretty much no real benefit from it at this point in the game, half a decade ago might have been another story.
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Palm does not manufacture anything. They hire FoxConn, Quanta, or another manufacturing contractor. So does HP.
Likely the Palm brand will be used in a similar fashion to Compaq: HP Palm will the mobile brand ("Compaq" is now used for compact desktop PCs).
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2008-12-26
This is a very nice turn of events for Palm; the problem Palm had was that they absolutely had to make money with everything they do, with no tolerance for market failures (funded by stable income from other products). HP shouldn't have that problem; they can focus on monetizing on their devices over a longer period of time.
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Wishful thinking. It looks more likely that Palm will work largely independent instead of tight integration to HP. Most likely Palm will offer more Blackberry style phones with own brand while HP brings high-end phones with Windows Phone 7 OS. This will likely mean HP won't offer WinMo6.5 or Android phones on new markets, instead they push cheap Palm phones. Even if they would integrate Palm it would take years for device that you fantasy come to market. HP has shown very little intrest on ARM style netbooks or slates. More likely they keep pushing high-end slates(over 500 euros) and Windows netbooks using Intel processors.
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It seems there's already some question over the speedy deal that was made with HP and Palm's board without stockholder knowledge beforehand... There's already a class action lawsuit being setup by shareholders:
http://www.zlk.com/palm.html
I admit, I am a bit disappointed at the price point that was settled on, being a PALM stockholder myself... I stand to lose a bit of money on this deal (not enough to really be upset over really).
Member since:2006-04-03
Well would you look at that. Apparently it isn't just big corporations that sue when they don't like how something is progressing...
As for the deal, I think it's good news for Palm, HP and the loyal customers of both companies. WebOS is certainly a very nice piece of kit and it would be a shame to see it rotting on a shelf somewhere, and HP have the wherewithal to manufacture some decent hardware for it to run on.
Time to stock up on the popcorn and get a comfy chair...
Member since:2006-01-26
And now a second law firm has announced intent to investigate the acquisition:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100428007249/en/Robbins-Ume...
It seems there's quite a few people upset over this sale...
Update: make that 3 of them:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100428007223/en/Finkelstein...
Edited 2010-04-29 00:03 UTC
Member since:2006-01-26
Wow, the lawyers are all over this like nobody's business:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100428007259/en/Law-Offices...
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"Take the WebOS interface, port it to android. You have an interface like SenseUI on HTC and as much as I like that, having the webOS on an android would be awesome, and you get immediate access to all those apps."
uh. after having replaced my droid with a palm pre. i wouldn't want that. palm has lots of apps already. and most of the games for palm pre are way better than the games for android. there are some app omissions that i would like to see added. but i wouldn't go back to android after having tasted the webos. it's just simply better, more intuitive, easier. the music player app is better, so is the video player app. and so is the touchstone charging. i really hope palm sticks with the touchstone charging system it rocks.
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2008-03-27
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Im an android fan but i can say without a doubt webos as it stands now is THE BEST mobile os available right now
my wife and kids all have pres and i had to do little or no configuring or teaching them how to navigate the ui they "just got it". The card metaphor is excellent especially for multitasking. My hope is that HP leaves the PALM brand intact and only supports them financially
I hope to see more phones from palm. But i also hope hp pushes palm to release a tablet (arm powered) with webos.
I swore i wouldnt buy another hp device because of their horrid power supply connectors but if they let palm be independent then i wont mind buying a device from them even if hp gets the profits in the end.
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2008-04-22
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HP is working at making Windows redundant.
It won't be on the desktop right away. It will take awhile. But with HTML5 and Ajax what can't you write application wise for web browsers.
Next, what about SunOffice/OpenOffice? That would give HP and office suits. Sorry but Sun just didn't seem to know what to do with Star/Sun/Open Office after awhile. I don't think Oracle knows what to do with it/how to take advantage of owning it. Maybe HP can do more with it.
Please note: The people outside of Sun seem to know what to do with OpenOffice. Sun/Oracle still owns the rights the StarOffice or whatever it was last called.
Anyway, webos is HP's way of making Windows redundant starting at the low end and they will work their way up. YES, WebOS with HTML5 and Ajax (if they use that) will let them work their way up the chain of their computers.
