webos

Yesterday, HP's CEO Meg Whitman made the public announcement about the future of WP7's competitor webOS, and that announcement set the world into a downward spiral of emotional charges, cheerleading, Nostradamus-like predictions and opinionated blog posts (though the only ones you need to read are those at our sister-site PreCentral.net *ahem* WebOSNation.com). Still, we haven't tackled the issue that stands in front of us today as a result of this decision - how will an open sourced webOS affect Microsoft's rising efforts with WP7?

As Derek Kessler has stated,

"Open sourcing is the middle road between killing webOS outright and selling it. In essence they’re giving it to the community that has cared about it and ensured that it continued to exist to this point. But how long webOS will continue to exist and be relevant after this point? That all depends on the almighty hardware."

As of right now, HP's decision to open source webOS has very little affect on WP7, if any at all. The affect that it could have is completely dependent upon the "almighty hardware"; hardware that has yet to be designed and built with OEM's that have yet to decide whether they want to use the platform. Also considering that it will still take time before webOS is actually open sourced (legal issues, you know), WP7 fans should have no worries about what could happen within the next year, or longer.

That said, webOS would be joining Google as one of two major open source operating systems (the term "major" meaning released worldwide to several million users). In some parallel Universe, and possibly this one, webOS will someday make it into all popular manufacturer's hands and dozens of smartphone handset models (which would turn into millions of users worldwide). But there is also the possibility that HP will just let webOS squander in the shadows before finally kicking the bucket without a single care from the world.

Bottom line is, we just don't know what will happen, and saying otherwise is only speculation. Of course, an open sourced webOS could bring some positive things to the WP ecosystem as well; we all know that friendly competition and technological innovation is good for everyone, no matter which side of the court they're playing on.

Read more about Open Source webOS at WebOSNation.com

Seems Nokia is taking what happened with webOS and HP into account with their devotion to Windows Phone. The handset manufacturer plans to avoid the sort of trouble that now plagues webOS and will ensure that teams are taking extreme measures to reach perfection.

Gary Chan, head of ecosystem and developer experience at Nokia Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, spoke to ZDNet Asia about why he felt webOS failed with HP. He explained that the market which webOS was targeting wasn't large enough and the platform didn't provide the means for developers to monetize their apps.

Vlasta Berka, general manager for Nokia Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei moved onto say that the breakdown between webOS and HP won't help Nokia and Microsoft since it doesn't matter how many platforms are competing in the market. For the consumer, the more ecosystems available, the better. The amount of effort required to be poured into the partnership remains the same.

"The party who suffers from a number of ecosystems being readily available are developers", Vlasta continued. "They may face a more challenging time deciding which platform to focus their projects [and resources] on".

Nokia will understand this more clearly once their Windows Phone handsets are in the field as they'll then be supporting three platforms - Symbian, MeeGo and Windows Phone.  As for MeeGo, Vlasta said the company has no plans to launch a second device this year and will more than likely leave it up to how popular the N9 becomes and what demand there is.

Source: ZDNet

While Brandon Watson is offering an alternative to webOS developers in the form of transition support, AdDuplex is offering a little help of their own. The offer is simple, port your app to Windows Phone and AdDuplex will give you 20,000 ad impressions.

As with most free offers there are rules (to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the deal) and they are as follows:

• Have an app published in the official application store on other mobile platform before August 22, 2011.
• Port and publish it in Windows Phone Marketplace from August 22, 2011 to December 31, 2011.
• Request your 20,000 ad impressions coupon by sending links to your app on the other platform and Windows Phone platform to info@adduplex.com

While this will help webOS developers get started, the offer is also being extended to Android, iOS, and Blackberry developers. It's nice to see the Windows Phone community offer alternatives to webOS and other developers.

Even if webOS finds a way to survive (which we hope it will) these offers will give developers a means to diversify their lineup.

source: blog.adduplex

While the aftershocks from HP showing webOS hardware the door continue to ripple throughout the smartphone industry, Microsoft is extending a hand to webOS developers. Brandon Watson has extended an offer to any published webOS developer to provide them what they need to successfully transition to Windows Phone.

According to the tweet that includes phones, development tools and training. At last check the tweet has been re-tweeted 100+ times and has received several positive replies and interest from webOS developers.

Personally, I hope webOS finds a way to survive for sentimental reasons. But it's nice to see Microsoft extending a hand to the webOS community to give developers options.

source: @brandonwatson via: thenextweb

Research group, Chitika, is reporting that Windows Phone 7 has gained enough of the smartphone market to bring it on par with HP's (Palm's) webOS.  Since February, WP7 has risen from 0.44% to 0.5%, putting it in a virtual tie with webOS' estimated 0.53%, down from 0.84% in the same period.  While this may not seem very impressive at first blush, it is significant because newcomer WP7 is now even, and set to overtake, an already established OS.  Windows Phone has been slowly gaining ground since its launch, while webOS has been steadily declining. 

Chitika predicts that WP7 will potentially spike once it makes its way over to Verizon, though its arrival has seen more than its fair share of delays.  Verizon has worked wonders for market leader, Android, as it accounts for more than half of all Android devices out there.  The slow growth of Windows Phone 7 seems to be less about quality, as most devices seem to receive high marks, and more about accessibility.  Once Big Red gets in the game, it could mean some substantial gains for Microsoft.

Source: 1800PocketPC; Via: Chitika

Myriad metaphors come to mind when thinking about Palm and Microsoft. David and Goliath. A young upstart fighter who took a couple of punches, versus an aging but still powerful opponent. A young executive overtaking the old man in the corner office. Take your pick.

In the past year, Palm announced and delivered on a new (and some say revolutionary) operating system and a pair of new phones. Microsoft announced and delivered another iteration of its operating system, which has found itself on a number of new devices. Their stories parallel each other, though many say the companies and their platforms are traveling in opposite directions.

After the break, we go in-depth with Palm's webOS from a Windows Mobile perspective, Smartphone Round Robin-style.