Hail Mary from HP: WebOS goes open source
It will go down in history as one of the technology world's most expensive efforts to give something away. The big question is whether there will be enough takers to justify the effort.
On Friday Hewlett-Packard Co. said it would make its webOS mobile system available as open-source software that anyone can use and modify freely. The idea here is to offer the product to the open-source community, which HP hopes will then develop more mobile apps for the platform.
HP: WebOS to go open source
ZDNet: HP open sources WebOS: The fallout
Sorry, WebOS is doomed to fail
But the announcement encountered a rough reception with many reports wondering, as did Roger Cheng of CNET, whether WebOS was already doomed to failure.
Calling it a case of too little, too late, Cheng called the move "a bad bet."
Past open-source platforms have had a mixed record of success. And people who had any interest in WebOS, whether consumers or developers, have been jerked around enough by the companies that have mismanaged the platform, from HP going back to Palm. After being burned on multiple occasions, is there any reason for someone to come back to WebOS?
But at this point, HP may be excused for taking drastic steps to recoup something after spending $1.8 billion last year to buy Palm Inc., which brought with it the intuitive webOS. For the record, the company says that it still plans to develop and support the operating system. It was initially released on the Palm Pre smartphone in 2009, and later ran on several smartphones. In July, HP also used it on its tablet computer, the TouchPad.
In a prepared statement announcing the move, the company described WebOS as "the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable." PR claims notwithstanding, the mobile devices never caught on with consumers, many of whom were more enticed by Apple;s iPhone and iPad and smartphones running Google' Android software. Developers also weren't that interested in creating apps for such a small audience.
The software's future has been uncertain since August, when HP said it would stop making tablet computers and smartphones - part of a blundered announcement by then-CEO Leo Apotheker, who also said then that HP was looking into putting its PC business up for sale.
In September, Apotheker was fired and replaced by former eBay CEO Meg Whitman. In late October Whitman reversed Apotheker's decision, saying HP wouldn't be selling off its personal computer business after all, but allowed then that the future of WebOS was still unclear. In an interview on Friday, she told the Verge that HP would continue to use WebOS in its products, but was coy with the details. Whitman also wouldn't commit to using the software next year, which could mean no WebOS HP products until 2013, if any at all. She also left the door open to another WebOS-powered tablet, although the last TouchPad was a complete failure.
HP plans to retain the patents related to WebOS. It also indicated that it plans to use something similar to Apache.