Palm's WebOS is for now the only operating system that Hewlett-Packard will be offering on its planned smartphones, according to an HP executive. This means saying no thanks to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.
Hewlett-Packard will exclusively run Palm's WebOS software on its
anticipated smartphone line, HP Executive Vice President Todd Bradley told CNBC.
The July 23 announcement means that while HP, the world's top PC maker, may
be Microsoft's biggest customer, it will be passing up Microsoft's newest
mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, which is scheduled to arrive in fall
2010 on devices from Samsung, LG, Asus and HTC.
Since HP's $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm earlier in 2010, HP executives
have been open and excited about their plans to "participate more
aggressively in the highly profitable, $100 billion smartphone and connected
mobile devices markets," as well as to launch WebOS on a number of form
factors, including tablets, printers and smartphones.
While the rumor mill predicted that HP would scrap its planned Slate
tablet-a Microsoft OS-running device-in favor of a WebOS-based tablet,
Bradley
said at a recent tech conference that HP plans to release both: an
enterprise-geared, Microsoft-based tablet, and a "broadly deployed"
consumer-geared tablet running WebOS. (HP has filed to
trademark
the name PalmPad, presumably for the latter.)
That HP wasn't similarly planning a two-prong approach to smartphones was
perhaps alluded to
during
HP's second-quarter earnings announcement May 18. HP President and CEO
Mark Hurd told analysts and reporters on a conference call that as the world
becomes more mobile, customers will demand more choice. Hurd later went on to
say, "Microsoft is probably one of the best relationships we've got in our
company, and they're still extremely important to us. There are a couple of
form factors, though, that are very attractive for us, and these small form
factors are where we think the [WebOS] IP can be very additive."
Former Palm CEO Jon
Rubinstein, the man behind the Palm Pre and Pixi, has stayed on board to head
HP's WebOS efforts, and analysts have repeatedly opined that the open-source operating
system is HP's best chance of competing against industry-leaders Apple and
Google. Also expected to help HP in the smartphone market is the fact that,
unlike Apple, it plans to use the channel to move its WebOS-based devices,
which could help it get its numbers climbing.
Bradley told CNBC that HP "brings
significant strengths" to its purchased Palm assets. In addition, with
smartphones (unlike with other form factors) it will for now be going down a
WebOS-only road. "Our intent," Bradley said, "is to focus those
resources on really making WebOS the best-connected OS it can be."
During the second quarter of 2010, the smartphone market, led by Nokia,
Research In Motion and Apple, saw
shipments rise to a record high of 60
million units, according to Strategy Analytics. Up from 41.5 million units
a year ago, the figure shows a year-over-year growth of 43 percent.
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