WOW.... The real question now is what happens to the pre? Clearly it's not selling well so hp needs to advertise it better or just cut it and build new hardware. If they wanna give it a chance against android or they iPhone they're gonna need to invest in a larger scale app store. So many problems to overcome, but hp has the money to do it.... Good for palm, they have a fantastic os that doesn't deserve to be blown off the face of the earth.
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HP to Acquire Palm in $1.2 Billion Deal
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I know, but I don't see the point...
The Mini's aren't that much bigger than the EVO and not even close to the size of the iPad. I wouldn't pay a 3G plan for a device marginally bigger than the EVO when I could just get the EVO and be done with it...
I agree. HP has some great lasers. I have a 5si and a couple other newer models as well. Never had an issue with them.
Their inkjets on the other hand, JUNK! I think they are designed to eat up as much ink as possible. Especially the older tanks that had the 3 colors in 1 cartridge. You ran out of one color and the entire cartridge was trash even though it had half the ink of the other colors. Terrible. I will NEVER buy an HP inkjet. They are even built like crap.
I will take my Canon MP4500 any day. I can replace any color I want! Simple, sleek and fast as hell.
It's a smart move (only move, really) for them to get into mobile. Their only other option was to leave themselves dependent on Microsoft. They could have bought RIM or Nokia, but that would have been $40 billion. This was smart. $1.2 billion is chump change for HP. Of course, what HP overpaid for it does make them chumps indeed, kind of.
This is good for Apple, RIM, and Google because it takes Palm out of the game for as much as two years. It also puts the HP Slate up the air too, because now it's going to be a standard tablet, like all the others that have failed, instead of a mobile device, and the real iPad competitor, whatever it is, is two years from now while HP comes up with the hardware and ports WebOS to it.
This is good for Apple, RIM, and Google because it takes Palm out of the game for as much as two years. It also puts the HP Slate up the air too, because now it's going to be a standard tablet, like all the others that have failed, instead of a mobile device, and the real iPad competitor, whatever it is, is two years from now while HP comes up with the hardware and ports WebOS to it.
The Palm Pre and OS are sexy as hell. I'd say even sexier than the iPhone. Not sure what this means for its future, though.
the only real problem they need to overcome is marketshare... advertising for palm is beginning to turn around FINALLY.. so they need some killer hardware that can compete with the top notch android stuff and the upcoming iPhone... other than that there are few problems with WebOS that HP needs to worry about... although they better jump on those security holes in webos if they plan on growing at all.
WebOS is great and I think it probably even has a better implementation of multi-tasking that iPhone OS 4!
I LOVE my iPhone and can't wait to get the new one, but WebOS's multi-tasking cards UI does make me slightly envious.Palm's mistakes were not in WebOS but in partnering exclusively with Sprint too long, poor marketing, and lack of international expansion! They should have done soo well, they have the best OS and platform out there except for iPhone, but better that BB, Android, WM, you name it! I think John Rubinstein should have a LOT more respect for Steve Jobs now and what he has really done!
Did anyone actually see this coming?
Um ya... Maybe not HP specifically, but there have been rumors of this for a while now!
That thing sure looks like more of an iPod replacement than an iPad replacement.
And I thought that iPods were still doing pretty well. I know it's an uphill battle to compete with iPods, but "who would I sell this to?" doesn't seem to be a big issue to me. Kids and teens, right?
I was going to say money down the drain but then I remember what Michael Dell said about Apple when Steve came back so I'll sit and see how this goes =)
It means that a Van Gogh original just went to a dirt farmer. And he needs a new doormat.
Hmm, plenty of people here who don't know much about the Pre and have been fooled by the WebOS moniker.
WebOS runs just as well without an internet connection as iPhone OS. The name comes from the fact that you build apps using HTML/CSS/JS, just like OS X dashboard widgets. They don't necessarily require an internet connection, just the same as iPhone apps.
The people saying WebOS is fantastic but with crappy hardware are...mostly right. Having had an iPod Touch for a few years and Pre for almost a year, I've got a pretty good idea of the strengths of each platform.
iPhone Wins:
Responsiveness (by a long shot)
App Store
Hardware design (look & feel)
Pre Wins:
Multi-tasking (even compared to OS 4 by the looks of it)
Contact management
Free OTA cloud backup and OS updates
Simplified app development (even though it hasn't really helped the ecosystem)
I find it humorous that Steve's hate for buttons left the iPhone with 1 main button, but Palm was able to get rid of it completely. The "gesture area" below the screen is something you just can't understand how well it works until you use it. I realize that requires leaving the Apple bubble, but this is coming from someone with a 100% Apple household outside of cell phones. Spoiled by Sprint and not willing to pay AT&T prices.
WebOS runs just as well without an internet connection as iPhone OS. The name comes from the fact that you build apps using HTML/CSS/JS, just like OS X dashboard widgets. They don't necessarily require an internet connection, just the same as iPhone apps.
The people saying WebOS is fantastic but with crappy hardware are...mostly right. Having had an iPod Touch for a few years and Pre for almost a year, I've got a pretty good idea of the strengths of each platform.
iPhone Wins:
Responsiveness (by a long shot)
App Store
Hardware design (look & feel)
Pre Wins:
Multi-tasking (even compared to OS 4 by the looks of it)
Contact management
Free OTA cloud backup and OS updates
Simplified app development (even though it hasn't really helped the ecosystem)
I find it humorous that Steve's hate for buttons left the iPhone with 1 main button, but Palm was able to get rid of it completely. The "gesture area" below the screen is something you just can't understand how well it works until you use it. I realize that requires leaving the Apple bubble, but this is coming from someone with a 100% Apple household outside of cell phones. Spoiled by Sprint and not willing to pay AT&T prices.
I disagree that palms advertising has turned around. Using the pre is a great experience, and palm has been unable pass on the feeling of that experience in their ads. The verizon commercials make it look like any average phone, when it's not, and the creepy lady ads didn't get any message across. The way that apple shows the iPhone being utilized in every possible way in their ads is much more effective.
Wow. Not even close.
WebOS refers to an OS that runs apps built using XML, HTML, Javascript and native plug-ins... not to apps that live on or requre the internet.
WebOS has one of the best multitasking UI paradigms around. It'd be great on a slate, although a lot of people were hoping for HTC to put it on an HD2 phone chassis. If HP puts it on a phone akin to what Dell is doing, that'd be okay too.
Apple has a fine mobile OS. They don't need two.
The total cost of the deal would be about $1.4bn (PALM has quite a bit of debt, and by buying the company, HP is buying the debt as well). What makes you think Apple could get $1.4bn worth of value out of this deal?
On the positive side for Apple and the rest of the industry is that Palm's patents haven't ended up with some patent troll.
Didn't know so many people on this board liked WebOS.
I actually own a Palm Pre now and this is great news. Palm's biggest shotcoming was their lack of money esp. going up against the big boys (Rim, Google, MS and Apple).
I hope they keep the same design philosophy moving forward and i think WebOS would make a great tablet.
I actually own a Palm Pre now and this is great news. Palm's biggest shotcoming was their lack of money esp. going up against the big boys (Rim, Google, MS and Apple).
I hope they keep the same design philosophy moving forward and i think WebOS would make a great tablet.
How does the UI multitask? I always thought that it ran processes remotely or something...
If that's not the case then it would probably run fine on a tablet. Frankly, I think it's a beautiful OS.
Thank you for clearing up the FUD.
I just hope Palm can get a big push behind hardware now. Can't wait.
What he said, I would not have expected this, very very interesting, I wonder if its the OS that they want or is it the phone?
It's not weird at all - HP have been making their own OS for years (HP-UX since the early 80s and MPE since the early 70s), and have also designed their own processors for a long time.
There's a lot more to HP than Laser printers, including some of the most powerful servers on the planet - the HP Superdome
No doubt apple has the best marketing when it comes to mobile phones.. no one can even come close, but when you compare what palm has now versus their creepy pale chick, and verizons pathetic attempt to market a phone to middle aged women when it should have been directed toward 20-30 year old men the new ads are finally something that shows off webos in a decent light.
check out:
http://www.precentral.net/palms-movies-ad-makes-it-set
http://www.precentral.net/french-palm-ad-does-webos-right
anti-trust!
HP has been waiting. If they tried to buy Palm 5 to 10 years ago, there could have been serious anti-trust issues combining the #1 and #2 manufacturers in the booming handheld PDA market.
And HP still sells iPaqs.
HP has been waiting. If they tried to buy Palm 5 to 10 years ago, there could have been serious anti-trust issues combining the #1 and #2 manufacturers in the booming handheld PDA market.
And HP still sells iPaqs.
No, the processes run onboard the phone.
From the looks of it listening to the conference call, Palm is pretty much going to function at the status quo for now with an influx of cash from HP. So hopefully with that, they can fix the few remaining hardware issues and gain momentum.