Hewlett-Packard's decision to nix webOS hardware and put the OS itself in the tech world's version of purgatory has left a gaping hole in the heart of the mobile market. While the media has mostly focused on the fate of HP after jettisoning its consumer products hopes, I've been more troubled by the fate of webOS.
Should HP kill off webOS, the world is going to miss out on what could have been one of the great mobile operating systems of our time.
True, HP hasn't yet made a final decision on webOS. It could be sold to another buyer (Samsung?), included in the spinoff of the PC business, or licensed out to make back some of the $1.2 billion it spent on the Palm acquisition last year.
But none of these options look good for the future of webOS. Of course, the best scenario for webOS - and those of us waiting in the wings - would be for HP to sell the OS outright to another company. Unless they're actually up to something with this strange game of cat-and-mouse they've been playing with the future of the TouchPad tablet. Will it happen? Hard to say. But it's possible that Samsung, or maybe HTC, could step up to the plate. And here's why. Ever since Google announced its plan to buy Motorola, things have been looking a little tense in Androidland. No matter what Google says about Android remaining "open" and how they'll continue to work with their different partners - and the support expressed in similarly canned quotes coming out of HTC and Samsung - there's just no getting around the fact that if Google owns Motorola, Motorola is going to have a big leg up in terms of Android development in the coming years. That might create the incentive for Samsung to invest in webOS, or for HTC to pick up its own OS. I like the HTC scenario more, frankly, but something tells me if either option is viable, it's the one involving Samsung.
But that's still a long shot.
The most likely scenario is that webOS will simply vanish. And that's why I wanted to take some time to remind us all of what we have lost in the webOS cancellation. webOS splashed onto the scene as the most promising, future-looking mobile platform I'd seen since Apple unveiled the first iPhone. I've been rooting for it since CES 2009, when Jon Rubinstein and the original Pre were the talk of the town.
I recently wrote an open letter to HP, begging them to see the strong potential in the webOS dream and to support it with better hardware. I never did hear back on that one.
But the plea was heartfelt. I've always thought webOS took the best parts of Apple's iOS and Google's Android and mashed them together with a healthy dose of visual style baked into the core. Not to mention the advantages it held over those other two. webOS is more user-intuitive than Android, and it's more functional than iOS, with true multi-tasking and an excellent notification system.
Remember, the original Pre drew tons of critical praise and spawned a solid following of core enthusiasts - even with the significant problems arising from Palm's lack of deep pockets (and those creepy ads). Then came Pixi, which I recommended to more than one Sprint user looking for "something because I can't get an iPhone" or "an Email phone but I really don't want a BlackBerry." To this day, everyone I suggested a Pixi to loves their phone.
It's true – not everybody needs dual-cores or a screen with as many pixels as their flat screen TV. Some people just want a device that's practical, fun to use and has a decent keyboard. (Yes, we both know about the hardware issues with some of the Pres and some of the Pixis … But let's focus on the good times for now, okay?)
iPhones and Android phones are great devices and all, but webOS was as much a different take on what "mobile phone software" could be as any of us had really seen since the original iPhone. webOS, frankly, had the potential to be all the things I liked about Apple and Google's ways of doing phones with most of the icky stuff removed, and mashed together with rounded corners and nicer typography.
Although it never found a home on a successful hardware device, and as an OS it still lacked polish, webOS was the only innovative and disruptive player left in what's become a two-company horserace. (And, by the way, it's been reported that when webOS was tested on the iPad 2, it was over twice as fast as on HP's hardware.)
So what we've really lost with webOS is the "X-factor." An alternative to Apple and Google.
Android and iOS are established and arguably mired in patent trolling, copycatting each other's features, etc. RIM and Microsoft are trying to re-invent and re-establish themselves via new partnerships and radically revamped platforms. webOS, on the other hand, even though it was born out of a company in Palm that was trying to re-invent/re-invigorate itself, was pretty eye-grabbing when it first launched and really represented a fresh new alternative way to look at your mobile computer.
Losing that force in the marketplace is bad for competition, choice, consumers in general - and tech bloggers like me.
When HP bought the Palm brand in 2010, many of us were excited - webOS could finally get the deep pockets it needs to be great - but we also worried that it could go the other way, and turn into a disaster. It looks like that's exactly what happened. And that's too bad - because we've all lost out on an amazing technology that never really had a chance.
Noah Kravitz is editor-at-large of TechnoBuffalo.com.