Microsoft is moving to exploit possible dissatisfaction over Hewlett-Packard killing its webOS hardware line, along with Google's Motorola acquisition.
Last week featured two seismic shifts in the tech world.
First, Google announced its intention to acquire Motorola Mobility, which (if
it goes through) will surely upend the competitive landscape for smartphones.
Second, Hewlett-Packard very publicly killed its webOS hardware, including the
TouchPad tablet, as part of a drastic refocusing on software and services.
What do both those events have in common? Microsoft
immediately leapt to capture anyone left cold by the Google and HP
maneuverings.
"To Any Published WebOS Devs," Brandon Watson, Microsoft's
director of developer experience for Windows Phone, wrote in
an Aug.
19 Tweet. "We'll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone,
incl. free phones, dev tools, and training, etc."
Given how HP let the TouchPad live a mere six weeks before
pulling the plug, there really wasn't a lot of time for its developers to
create much of an app store for webOS. But Microsoft has little to lose in
trying to persuade those same developers-however few in number-to give its own
smartphone platform a shot.
By Aug. 22, Watson claimed (again, via his
Twitter feed) that some 1,000
interested webOS developers had sent emails.
Watson's Tweet echoed a comment earlier in the week from
Andy Lees, president of Microsoft's Windows Phone Division, who responded to
Google's acquisition plans with a widely-circulated statement: "Investing in a
broad and truly open mobile ecosystem is important for the industry and
consumers alike, and Windows Phone is now the only platform that does so with
equal opportunity for all partners."
That statement plays on the possible fears of smartphone
manufacturers that Motorola Mobility could become the favored child of the
Android set. Indeed, following news of Google's $12.5 billion bid, analysts
hypothesized that just those fears could drive a second look at Windows Phone.
"The likes of Samsung, HTC and LG obviously don't have any
other choice than to say at this point that they welcome the deal," Florian
Mueller, an intellectual property analyst, wrote in
an Aug. 15 posting on his blog.
"But there's no way that they can compete with a Google-owned Motorola Mobility
on a level playing field."
If Microsoft manages to exploit both the Google-Motorola and
HP situations to attract developers and manufacturers, it could greatly help
Windows Phone, which is currently struggling for market-share against the likes
of Android and Apple's iOS.
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