Skip to main content

A salute to the sinking ship WebOS

HP the other day shattered everyones dreams of WebOS. In a surprising announcement, HP is discontinuing its Personal Systems group, basically they will stop making all electronics that we consumers buy such as desktops, laptops, WebOS, etc. but they will keep making printers as they make money for the ridiculous price of their ink cartridges.

The dying gasps of WebOS came today as, in Australia the touchpad which only on sale for 4 days was pulled then sold again for 98 bucks. As you would imagine, it sold out in 60 minutes around the country. But what does this mean? Tablets need to be an impulse item? Or was the touchpad just priced incorrectly at $499?

Most people I asked said that they went to buy it because it was $98 and it was a average tablet, this i feel what HP should have done from the start. Lose money in the short term with touchpad though it was pretty crappy hardware with its plasticy finish and slow hardware so i dont how they'd actually lose money but make it up from the apps and the platform of WebOS.

This latest development definitely has apple quaking in their boots, an increases their desire to block any other tablet entering the market, i predict that apples anticompetitive litigation campaign will step up as the holiday season draws near.

Tablet manufacturers (ASUS, Samsung, Acer etc.) listen up and learn from HP's mistakes, the only way that you can differentiate yourselves from the ipad which is a product consumers are willing to pay a premium for is to heavily undercut the ipad in price while retaining all the curent technologies such as tegra 2, usb ports HDMI.

WebOS we hardly knew ye, you were the middle ground between android and iOS. you were clean and easy to use but with powerful features such as multitasking and flash. You never had the muscle behind yourself when you were at palm and HP was just a dud, WebOS we hardly knew ye.

This all said i'm kinda bummed out, but i have hopes for the future please HP licence WebOS or at least sell it to anyone other than apple, someone who will take it on a make it into the platform it should have been so in my mind please let be a HTC or samsung. God we know they make awesome hardware so with WebOS the possibilities are limitless.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apple fail: Maps

--> New Apple Maps Logo Old Google Maps logo Google maps was brutally axed from the iOS platform during the latest iteration of the operating system, as usual there is huge resistance from iOS users, since google maps was a better option to what is currently being provided by Apple maps. While Apple maps are generally fine, with mapping data provided by tomtom and open street map, they lack street view, public transport locations and accurate POI data. To compensate for this short fall Apple has provided turn-by-turn navigation and unique 3d feature called flyover. while the turn-by-turn navigation is a critical feature which was missing from Apple's mobile platform, I'd much rather have street view than the terrible flyover feature which makes roads and bridges looks like roller-coasters and buildings look like sausages emerging from the earth. Another massive error on Apple's part is the launch of incorrect maps where entire cities are either...

Windows 8 is too late?

this september Microsoft announced their new operating system, windows 8. It is supposed to be the answer to the tablet phenomena currently ripping across the tech landscape and the king is apple with their iPad. Set to launch late 2012, meaning sometime in Q3 Q4. This really worries me as Apple and Android would have then at least 3 generation in this category to refine their respective operating systems, getting a general mindshare in the populace and not to mention the huge lead in market share android and iOS would have over windows 8 at that point. I'm starting to get the vibes that Microsoft might have become a dinosaur, i will justify my analogy with the fact that Microsoft still has 90% marketshare in the desktop and laptop business, thus they are big but as we have seen thought out last year and this year, all the growth thus the money is in mobile devices such as tablets and phones. which Microsoft missed with windows phone 7 only started to get attention this year...

Nintendo: sign of the times

Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo co, Ltd. Today Nintendo reported its first operating loss in 30 years, a loss of $530 million. Nintendo sold 13.51 million 3DS units, 9.84 million Wii's and 5.1 million DS family units (nintendo DS, DSI & DSI XL). Nintendo predicts that the next financial year, they will be back in the black with a net profit of $245 million, this is due the 3DS will no longer be sold below cost and the upcoming launch of the Wii U. We see from these earnings, the impact of smartphones and tablets. The economy is also a compunding factor where gamers, especially casual gamers (Nintendo's target market) don't want to spend $30-$50 on games. When games on their smartphone or tablet provides a similar of in some cases a better experience than the hand held gaming system at a fraction of the price ($0.99 for angry birds, $14.99 for infinity blade, etc). Though Nintendo is predicting and profit of $245 million, next financial year. I am less enthu...