HP Completes Palm Acquisition

Not seeing the orange ball anywhere. Is it gone? Interestingly HP used the same orange ball for ad info.
Pat Horne

Are you sure Gordon? ,,,

Do they need to be tied together to sink?

Will one rock not sink alone?

Will they sink if placed in cement?

Will they sink in water that's frozen?

Do they sink if attempting in weightless environs?

... you'll be sad when I get my new printer with 4G, AMOLED, and WebOS.

Pat Horne

The WebOS tide is rising my reptilian friend.
Pat Horne

Now that it is "over" are you gonna pull a disappearing act like SeldomVisitor/Hengeem?? I sure hope not! I may be needing some Evo pointers in, oh, 2-3 weeks!

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

hkk - not planning on bailing but you guys are a bunch of dinosaurs.

It would be cool to build youtube content that is optimized in a new platform that includes full youtube content. Some platforms do not seem to enable full youtube interaction. Some mobile devices will offer music and video not forum interaction. Perhaps this new platform will open up youtube to full mobile interaction.

E-T

I'm glad this happened. FWIW, the main reason why Palm is being picked up is they have a very good embedded Linux RTOS (webOS) that they are planning to design in a lot of their products.

Supposedly, they are looking at getting rid of two third party embedded OS'es with this. First is ThreadX that allegedly runs on most of their printers and scanners. Second is they want to eliminate, if not severely compromise Window Mobile and make some good mobile systems. Perhaps we will even see an HP-branded and webOS-based tablet computer.

It does look bright. How long will the Palm logos say on the buildings on Maude Ave?

Yeah, the naysayers are wrong - Palm coupled with HP has lots of potential - far more than Palm ever had on their own. Originally, I was hoping that Cisco might pick up Palm (also a parent with deep pockets and little existing presence in the mobile device market) but now I think HP is dead serious about making a strong go at the mobile market (cell phones, tablets, other form factors to be named later - probably netbooks, cameras - and non-mobile devices like, of course, printers) and so is the best possible buyer that Palm could have ever hoped for. HP seems to WANT to go their own way in mobile - independent of Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc - and seem eager to put their money where their mouth is.

For example - HP gives Palm the ability to launch a new phone simultaneously on multiple carriers like Samsung is doing with their new Galaxy line of phones. Why? Because HP doesn't need the carrier kickbacks and marketing aid that come with the exclusivity agreements (Palm needed these because they were so cash poor). HP has a huge marketing and sales department that can spend gazillions on advertising campaigns to build awareness - one bad campaign won't sink HP like the way it did Palm with the creep girl ads (though I still hope HP can manage a home run campaign like Motorola/Verizon did with Droid).

The only open questions are longer term - does HP/Palm license webOS for non-core markets? We know Google's Android will be everywhere (phones, tablets, TVs, etc - Google makes money off search - not the devices) but how will HP/Palm compete with that? And, if HP for some reason doesn't end up being successful (by whatever metric they decide to measure that), how long will they continue the no-holds-barred investment in Palm/WebOS before shifting strategies (i.e. they decide mobile is non-core and go back to just being a licensee)?

Anyway, with Apple and Google mostly being consumer oriented, there's a real opportunity for HP in the enterprise markets, especially when it comes to tablets. I figure if they can quickly (within 6-9 mos) come out with a strong tablet, it will help them win share in mobile phones (they'll no doubt have solid phones, they'll find an increasingly saturated market and have difficulty cutting through the chatter). For the other non-mobile devices the lead time is longer - webOS in printers, cameras and instant-on webOS BIOS PCs (if those come to fruition) probably won't come until mid-2011 at the earliest.

Microsoft continues to flail around in the mobile space - allowing Windows Mobile momentum to melt away while investing in the Kin (completely mistargeted product which took way too long to come to market) and killing the Courier shows just how adrift they are. How many OEMs will sign up for Phone 7 once it is finally released (and will consumers even care)? Nokia's two OS strategy (Symbian and Meego) dilutes what should be a stronger presence - though they look to be getting closer to moving forward with Meego and ditching Symbian. And RIMM looks to me like they might be the next Palm - taking a painfully long time to update their OS and increasingly outmatched financially in a game of behemoths (Google, Apple, MS, Nokia, HP, Intel).

It'll be interesting...

The 2 mobile handheld products on HP's web page are both pretty solid specs. Throw WebOS on these and related form factors like multiple sized tablets, and it could get interesting. I just hope they make the link to the cloud optional which I assume they would if they go on multiple carriers in parallel like Samsung is. Just wondering, is there a carrier that ISN"T handling Samsung Galaxy S? It's everywhere in some form or another.

over? was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor???!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI

Really, did any of you bother to watch the video and actually LISTEN?

HP has established relationships with every damned carrier. HP's SMS software is the MIDDLEWARE everyone in the cellphone space uses. This gives webOS an advantage NO OTHER OS can hope for. HP has had a trusted long-term relationship with all those vendors, unlike either Apple or Google. If HP says, "Look, put this webOS middleware on your network and carry our devices, and we'll all clean up like hell" -- carriers will listen and DO.

I also didn't know about these frikkin apps already built-into HP's printers.

And that HP guy in that video has one hell of an impressive resume going there. Plus, he came out of retirement to work at HP. Someone like him could have gone anywhere, but he went to HP. He had to have liked what HP told him they wanted to do.

And I also liked the fact one of the first things HP did was run a contest with all the engineers to build webOS apps. DAHYUM! Talk about everyone getting hands-on experience with it! All those engineers could also look at it and immediately see what heavyweight things would improve webOS.

If Apple and Google have been laughing at Palm, they'd better start paying attention. The sh*t is going to start to getting serious soon.

HP doesn't get it:

In connection with completion of the Palm acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), some Palm staffers this week were handed their walking papers.

One now-former Palm staffer who got the ax this week tells me that while there were "many others" cut, but that the company would not say exactly how many people lost their jobs as a result of the deal. "Pretty ironic for a company that said it was going to double-down on WebOS," my contact writes.

@ Mike;

I'd be content to have Rob Haitani, Jeff Hawkins, the tap counter guy, and Donna Dubinsky come out of retirement/semi-retirement to join the party over any HP people. Throw in CES Dewar, Dmitry Grinberg, Aaron Ardiri, some of the TCPMP crew and Marc Blank alongside some young Linux studs and that'd be pretty much good enough for me.

@ jptx;

That's the best concept I've heard in ages. In fact, it's almost a no-brainer (along with my idea to sell leftover Centros at $99 retail w/ $20 monthly unlimited data service through Virgin Mobile etc). It'd also make sense to have a $200 or $300 wi-fi only version for the budget-minded. it's such a good concept that HP/Palm or Sprint would want to run with it. But what size screen would you like to see? I feel that maybe 1366x768 on 10.6" or so is the sweet spot?

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

That video talks about HP wanting more then just the technology; HP was also interested in the *people* at Palm...

yet...

a few webos people leave, several vp's leave, *and* HP axes a bunch of people.

Sounds like HP is not off to a good start with all of this.

Heh. Now HP will have numbers of its own to see how the Pre/Pixi are selling -- or not. I'd sure like to be in that "We need a new phone NOW, dammit!!!" crisis meeting.

I would say that Palm itself was on the cusp of releasing a new phone(s). It's been a year since the Pre launch, and they have repeatedly spoken about products in the pipeline. HP said publicly that they would continue to bring what's in the pipeline. HP may make some labeling and release adjustments, but it's way to late to make any significant product changes at this stage. Even if HP is not crazy about the products launching, they are not going to sell nothing for another 9-18 months while they bring something totally new.
Palm was discretely (Ha!) positioning itself for sale after the Pre launch got bungled. But all that money they were burning through at to fast a pace to survive was going to build something. That something should get at least Mr. Fuzzycam here in a few days.
Pat Horne

Give me a webOS phone that tops Gekko's paltry EVO -- so I can taunt him to death, especially after Android 3.0 makes his EVO useless. Bwahahaha!

>>>"Lately my life has seemed hollow and pointless, so I thought I'd buy a new gadget." – Men's Health Cartoon, October 2005

Which is precisely why I DON'T buy everydamnthing everyone else buys. My life ISN'T frikkin hollow and pointless. STFU, Gekko -- which of us two HAS to visit strippers? Not me, baby.

>>>A graphic interface for hand-helds where every pixel was analyzed to reduce steps and confusion.

Yeah, now that's what webOS needs today!