HP Open-Sources webOS

TRANSCRIPT:

RAY HOLLISTER: Recently HP announced that they are open-sourcing the operating system that runs their phones and tablets called webOS.
In a nutshell, open-sourcing means that Hewlett-Packard will be sharing the source code of webOS, the human readable code that the operating system is programmed with. Now this is quite different compared to companies like Apple who jealously guards the code that their iOS operating system runs on.

This puts HP’s webOS at a crossroad. This could revitalize the operating system to where you could see webOS devices everywhere, or they could just be putting it out to pasture.

To give you some background story, webOS itself was wildly praised by many critics and users when it was announced by Palm at the Consumers Electronic Show in January of 2009, but the phones and tablets that it ran on were all disappointing sellers.

JEFF BAKALAR: The phone is great, they just have absolutely no quality control.

RAY HOLLISTER: That was Jeff Bakalar, Associate Editor and Co-Host of CNET’s “The 404” on the episode just after he had received his 9th Palm Pre. All of his previous eight Palm Pre’s had to be taken back to Sprint because they were defective. Sales of Palm’s phones were so dismal that the company was rumored to be on the edge of bankruptcy when HP announced that they were purchasing Palm for 1.2 billion dollars in late April of 2010.

After HP purchased Palm, they excited fans by holding an event on February 9th of 2011 announcing two new phones and a tablet device with what can only be compared with the excitement of an Apple keynote event.

(“Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” by LCD Soundsystem begins playing. A crowd applauding and cheering can be heard.)

TODD BRADLEY: Well good morning! Welcome to San Francisco.

RAY HOLLISTER: However, that excitement wore off quickly as HP did not announce prices or when the devices were expected to launch. The HP Veer, a diminutive phone with a face only slightly larger than a credit card finally came out over three months later, and the HP Touchpad was finally released on July 1st. Both sold so poorly that only 48 days after the Touchpad was released HP canceled all webOS devices. In the same announcement they stated that they would ?explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.?

Four months later, HP’s newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman finally announced that they would be open-sourcing webOS.

So, unless you’re already familiar with how open-source software works, you are probably asking, “OK, what does that mean?” Well, it means that HP is letting everyone take a look under the hood, and take out the parts they want, or they can take the entire system and install it on their own devices. This is the same way that Android, which is primarily made by Google, works. In fact, webOS could potentially become a serious competitor to Android, which has taken over the market share from Apple’s iPhone.

The question is, will webOS be successful as an open source platform? The main factor that has separated the successes from the failures has been the level of manufacturer support. If only modders, hackers and tinkerers put webOS on their phones and tablets, and hardware manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Sony do not adopt it, then webOS may not find success in the open-source after life.

DEREK KESSLER: If that is to be the future of webOS, that’s a death sentence.

RAY HOLLISTER: That was Derek Kessler, Editor-in-Chief of webOSNation.com, a news site dedicated to webOS news and discussion. Derek has been following the news around Palm and subsequently webOS and HP since 2000, and despite his concern that HP still has not announced any partners in manufacturing, he still remains optimistic.

DEREK KESSLER: I’m very hopeful that HP and other companies latch on to this open-source webOS and actually do something with it, and they do something amazing, and make hardware and software that is actually worth putting out, and worth buying, and good for the users, and good for the companies that make it.

From 89.9 WJCT, I’m Ray Hollister

Yesterday HP had its big announcement that had the tech world waiting on pins and needles. A lot of famous people were in the audience, including the requisite journalists and even a few minor celebrities (MC Hammer and Serena Williams). The one thing that everyone seemed to noticed was suspiciously missing was the Palm logo, which is now missing from Palm’s website. [UPDATE: OK, now it’s back? Make up your mind people!] This was just a foreshadow of the real stab to the hearts of Palm fans that would come later in the day.

The announcement yesterday wasn’t quite a royal flush; it was more like 3 of a kind and a couple of jokers. I know that would normally be an incredible hand, but suffice it to say that these jokers were not good ones. Let me start with the three of a kind: HP announced three new devices yesterday.

The first device announced, the HP Veer, is an incredibly small, and pretty much adorable, device that is apparently replacing the Palm Pixi line. The Veer has a 2.6 inches screen, which is almost exactly the same size as the Pixi. However, the Veer is a portrait slider instead of a candybar. Another differentiating factor is that in addition to being compatible with the iconic Touchstone charger it has a magnetic USB connector that it charges through and transmits data through. The Veer camera is significantly upgraded over the Pixi with a 5-megapixel camera with extended depth of field. Most of the reviewers that got their hands on it were surprised at how comfortable it was to use, despite its diminutive size. The question remains though, “Is there a market for a small smartphone like the Veer?” Other companies have tried and failed. Does the Veer have something that will set it apart, or will it crash and burn like the others?

Their second device they announced yesterday is the one that most Palm fanboys and girls were waiting on: the next iteration of what was Palm’s flagship phone, the HP Pre³. In addition to having an annoying superscripted number three at the end of its name, the Pre³ also comes with a larger, 3.58 inch, 800 x 480 pixel screen and a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It also has a front-facing VGA camera and a rear-facing 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, and HD 720p video recording. Some other minor upgrades include a digital compass, dual-mic noise cancellation, and a slightly larger battery. Many fans were hoping for something larger, but one of the presenters said that HP wanted to differentiate themselves from the “bigger is better” crowd.

The pièce de résistance of the event was the HP TouchPad. This was the device that kept sneaking out and starting rumors. The TouchPad has a 9.7-inch XGA capacitive, multitouch, 1024×768 resolution display and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam. One of the features of the TouchPad that HP seemed to be the proudest of was the integration of Beats Audio^? by Dr. Dre. Although there aren’t any technical specifics about what makes this brand of sound equipment better, HP says that it “reproduces the original sonic integrity of digital tracks?letting you hear the music the way recording artists intended.”

Although the hardware was certainly impressive, a large portion of the event was spent talking about new apps for the devices. HP especially focused on the applications that are designed specifically for the TouchPad, such as the new Time Inc, magazines, the Kindle app, and Quickoffice. However, the highlight of the event was seeing how the new version of WebOS, verions 2.2 on the Pre³ and Veer, and 3.0 on the TouchPad, work and how they work together. For example, you can “move” web content that you are viewing on one device to another just by taping the two devices together. Also, you can answer a phone call or receive text messages that came in on your WebOS Phone on your TouchPad instead. HP also gave us a sneak peak into the future. HP intends to bring WebOS to desktops and laptops, thus bridging the gap from mobile devices to our more stationary devices and extending the experience.

The two daggers to the hearts of Palm fans that I mentioned earlier were discovered after the bright lights had come down and had everyone started to trickle out of the Herbst Pavilion. First, even though HP CEO Leo Apotheker promised that the new HP WebOS hardware was ready and that it would be ready to ship within weeks of the announcement, the Veer is the only device shipping within the next few months. HP officially says on its website that the TouchPad and the Pre³ are planned to be available this summer, and the Veer is planned to be available this spring. These statements have the sad, familiar ring of the line that became infamous within the WebOS community: “in the coming months.”  This was the answer every time there was a delay in releasing the Palm Pre,  the Pre 2, WebOS 2.0 and Adobe Flash support. It was also noted that neither the price of these new devices or the carriers that they would be on was disclosed.

The second and most painful wound for WebOS fans came when both Engadget and PreCentral spoke to the folks at HP behind WebOS and they confirmed to both sites that the Palm Pre, Pixi, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus will not receive any more major over-the-air updates of WebOS. Jon Rubinstein told Engadget that the older devices simply did not have the necessary specs to support WebOS 2.0 properly. Apparently HP has “something special” planned for owners of the older devices when the new devices go on sale; what that means at this point is anyone’s guess. In the midst of the resulting torch and pitchfork waving from the incited masses, HP showed its humanity and compassion towards its loyal users when Lisa Brewster of Palm Developer Relations tweeted: “We’ve broken a promise to our most faithful users, and that has my heart heavy tonight. Ppl keep asking if I’m ok.” Palm later tweeted from their official Twitter account: “All the feedback and questions are appreciated — will be sharing as much info as possible as soon as possible”

In the end, HP may have scored a win with the general public, but they also scored an epic fail with their fiercely loyal fans that stuck with them through the WebOS Desert. HP needs to respond quickly to this PR nightmare with something that will salve the wounds that they inflicted. Then, HP needs to get these devices out quickly before new iOS and Android hardware comes out that make the new HP devices look beige and boring again.