TechCrunch just posted a summary of an interview with Todd Bradley, the Executive VP for the Personal Systems Group. There are a number of interesting details in the article, but this is what caught my eye:
The strategy with webOS is not just the OS but it’s also to have a consistent interface from phones to tablets, says Bradley. He adds that the main reason HP acquired Palm was for the WebOS. Bradley adds however, that Palm will not license WebOS, as Google has with the Android platform.
He just made WebOS irrelevant in the tablet market by driving away developers. There won’t be as many WebOS tablets as Android tablets, so developers would be better off spending their limited funds working on Android apps. And if users can’t get the commercial media apps on WebOS, then they’ll get an Android tablet instead.
RSS
Email
Facebook
Twitter
I don’t agree that by not licensing their OS that they’ve made it irrelevant to developers. I think it actually makes it special in the sense that there are not a ton of generic phones coming out utilizing WebOS and throwing their own crappy UI on top of it.
People focus on how many people are using Android and that it’s usage will soon pass that of iOS. Well so what? They’re is still not a SINGLE Android phone that’s outselling the iphone one to one. Or even close.
This is not to knock Android.. but I don’t think you need your OS on everything to make it successful. Create something “special”… that separates you from the pack… and I’m sure you’ll be able to rack up sales and create an active developer community.
Nonsense! What’ s relevant to devs are devices that sell and can sell their apps. When Google drives a stake in the heart of Android tablets next year in favor of Chrome, you’ll see. webOS is a great OS and can really get an audience.