After purchasing Palm, putting webOS on smartphones and tablets, and then giving up, it seems that HP has finally decided it needs to offer a smartphone. Pressured on the point in an interview with Fox Business, HP’s CEO Meg Whitman said that the company “ultimately has to offer a smartphone.” But when, where, how, and what are still up in the air. More »
HP bet big on the smartphone world when it purchased Palm, but the company fell flat on its face and webOS failed to take off. The reasons for the failure are numerous, but the new CEO Meg Whitman is smart enough to realize it can’t simply abandon the market entirely. In an interview with Fox Business, she said that HP “ultimately has to offer a smartphone.” Though she was willing to acknowledge that the company is “working on this,” she would not divulge too many details about its mobile plans. Whether or not webOS may rise from the ashes as a largely community-powered platform remains to be seen, but we wouldn’t be shocked to see HP pivot towards its longtime partner Microsoft, and release a Windows Phone 8 device. Perhaps the best glimmer of hope for the former Palm system was Meg’s focus on developing markets. She rightly points out that, in some parts of the world, the first and only “computer” a person may own is a smartphone — and reaching that audience is essential to Hewlett-Packard’s success. Going back to the webOS well (with its open source support) would allow the company to save a few dollars on the cost of a new handset. Check out the video after the break for the full quotes in context.
Continue reading Meg Whitman says HP has to ‘offer a smartphone’
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Meg Whitman says HP has to ‘offer a smartphone’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Having unceremoniously ditched its webOS phone strategy, HP is planning to release a new smartphone as a point of entry device for emerging markets, the company’s CEO has revealed. “We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device” Meg Whitman told Fox Business News, though the chief exec did not say when the first new HP phone might be on the market, only that it wouldn’t be a rush-job.
“We are working on this. In the end, I would love to be able to provide all the way from the most fabulous workstations … to desktops, to laptops, to our tablets and convertibles, all the way to the smartphone. But we did take a detour into smartphone, and we’ve gotta get it right this time. So my mantra to the team is “better right, than faster than we should be there” so we’re working to make sure that, when we do this, it will be the right thing for HP and we will be successful.
My view is we have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world, that is your first computing device. There will be countries around the world where people may never own a tablet or a PC or a desktop, they will do everything on a smartphone, we are a computing company we have to take advantage of that form-factor” Meg Whitman, CEO, HP
Whitman also gave no technical details about the upcoming HP smartphone, though it’s not too far a stretch to assume that the company will use its webOS assets. That will be in a markedly different way to the HP Pre3 and Veer, however; HP has been modifying webOS since its release as an open-source platform, and key members of the team responsible for the OS have left for alternative positions, such as at Google.
webOS was generally considered to be ahead of its time, and suffered first from creator Palm‘s lack of funding to make the most of the platform, and then – following Palm’s acquisition by HP – an underwhelming degree of support by HP itself. The computing company was particularly stung by reaction to the TouchPad, its webOS tablet, which was criticized in comparison to the iPad and swiftly discontinued.
With Android under patent attack, iOS 6 making its debut on the new iPhone 5, and Microsoft struggling to gain marketshare for Windows Phone, it remains to be seen whether HP will attempt to revive webOS or follow a different path with either Google or Microsoft’s platforms. Nonetheless, while it’s relatively easy to produce a smartphone, the company already knows from experience that it’s very difficult to produce a successful one.
[via The Verge]
HP smartphone in pipeline confirms CEO is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
The software running HP’s now cult-classic TouchPad tablet as well as a range of smartphones has been released as Open webOS beta today. This beta release of the software will have developers able to access it using an Apache 2.0 license, and the development will commence immediately for 3rd party users looking to bring the system back to life after an ill-fated run over the past few years ended with HP cutting off their mobile hardware lineup.
This code is bringing (in beta) a set of 54 components making 450,000 lines of code, and all the elements you’ve seen of the desktop build released to Ubuntu are included of course as well. Developers will be glad to find a collection of 3rd party Enyo apps supported here on the packages System Manager as well as the ones you’d expect from the basic set of apps included on the mobile device build.
HP’s servers will be bursting at the seams with this lovely offering starting today – if you don’t see it, wait a bit longer. You’ll be grabbing such lovely bits as “build-desktop” and “core-apps” never before legally distributed to the public. Grab em all and report back to tell everyone how much awesome developing fun you’re having!
Also check the timeline below for more information on webOS as it’s made its path towards the open environment it’s about to be in now. HP is working with the community to keep webOS an operating system worth working with, and we’re excited to see it continue to expand. Also see our webOS tag portal and HP tag to keep up to date with both groups in the very near future too – exciting things are bubbling up!
Open webOS beta released today for developers is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
There’s almost no reason for any normal person to get excited about the beta release of open source WebOS, but for those of us who still can’t come to grips with the fact that Palm’s stunted mobile OS was an abject failure, there’s still a faint beacon of light to soothe the soul. More »
Just like that, HP is making good on its promise to release Open webOS in beta. The code is available today under the Apache 2.0 license, and is landing slightly ahead of schedule (HP long ago said the software would arrive in September). All told, the beta release is comprised of 54 components, totaling more than 450,000 lines of code. As you’d expect, too, the desktop build incorporates all the elements released so far on Ubuntu. The software also includes an ARM emulator, running db8, node.js and other services. Other highlights: the System Manager now supports applications, including key ones like Calendar and Contacts. Many third-party Enyo apps are supported too, HP says. Been waiting all these months to get your coding on? Hit up the source link below for more information. And if necessary, keep refreshing: as of this writing, the code hasn’t hit HP’s servers, but it should very soon.
Open webOS beta will become available to developers today originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
I guess you can say that WebOS is the mobile operating system that simply refuses to die, where this former operating system of Palm that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) is now the main focus of the start-up known as Gram, especially after WebOS was sidelined into an open source project. An internal email did point towards the recruitment of staff to run Gram as an independent subsidiary of HP, with the objective of doing to meant to probe the mobile device market to see whether there is still a niche for WebOS to occupy.
Gram will not only spend its fair share of time with webOS, but it will also have related software platform products like the Enyo development tools, in addition to products that are capable of delivering cloud content. Could the possible revival of WebOS be on the cards now, and will Gram be able to fully leverage the core strengths of webOS, Enyo, and cloud offerings?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: webOS hacked, offers swiping gesture to switch apps, HP webOS Community Edition released,
The folks at HP have decided to take the remains of what once was their smartphone-making sector (originally Palm) and re-form it into a group called GRAM. This wholly-owned subsidiary of HP has been confirmed to exist by sources speaking with AllThingsD where they’ve also got word that the webOS Nation-revealed internal letter tagged with the following was and is real as well: “Potent. Light. Nimble. At the core of all things big and small.” This company is taking the place of HP’s webOS Global Business Unit as well.
This update will bring the Palm group – GRAM – to an era where creating the hardware for the operating system is not a goal. Instead, in addition to focusing on Open webOS as an open-sourced software initiative, they’re aiming to be only partially reliant on HP for funding. If HP should decide they do not want to fund the project at some point, the folks responsible from GRAM are hoping to be able to get outside funding to make themselves a continually viable group.
Have a peek at this supposedly fully straight-up copied and pasted letter taken from the employees of the former HP group and send out this month as a Call to Action.
“Hi everyone,
Thank you for all of your enthusiasm at yesterday’s new brand announcement: GRAM. We hope you will fall in love with the brand just as lots of us have already.
Please note that our Mission, Values and Plan of Action are the same. We are continuing to march forward on our timelines as usual—nothing new there.
We have much work to do, and, again, I solicit your help.
Yes, this is a new brand—it is just the beginning, and there is so much more to do. And yet unveiling the new brand is also a Call to Action:
Try it on. We don’t expect you to love it overnight. We are no longer a consumer hardware brand, we are a different company with focus on software, User Experience, Cloud, engineering and partnering. This change in identity will take some getting used to and that’s normal.
Stealth mode. We are an incubation company, and we are trusting you to keep this company name and product under the radar to give it time to take root and grow. You can wear the logo, help build the momentum of the new identity, talk to your families and friends about it. If someone from the outside asks, you can say, “GRAM is a new company. We are in stealth mode on our product offering.”
Tap your network. Help us hire the best and the brightest, refer your friends and help us in our shared purpose as we continue our rise to the top. You can use the name to help us to recruit.
Be the culture. Spread our Values: People Matter. Integrity and Trust. Deliberate Innovation. Act small, deliver big.
For those of you who could not attend yesterday’s unveiling – we really missed you. Please be on the lookout for the gift bags with our new cool branded items, which we be mailing out to you this and next week. All of you should get one, if not – let me know.
Best
Martin”
This company is, again, no longer a hardware initiative, but will be focusing on software on the whole. They’re also moving forward with cloud connectivity as well as engineering and user experience, whatever they end up making that mean for you. Partnering is one of their focuses as well, so we expect that they’ll be attempting to hook up with hardware giants to make webOS a usable operating system again in the future.
Stay tuned as webOS continues to exist and HP continues to attempt to stay in the mobile universe!
HP’s shattered Palm forms “GRAM” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
HP’s webOS team has been keeping busy with its open source project, but it’s time for a new challenge in the form of Gram: a fresh HP-funded offshoot focused on “software, user experience, the cloud, engineering, and partnering.” We’re not quite sure where that list could lead, but webOS, Enyo and cloud services are all expected to play a role in future endeavors. Judging from the fancy flyer after the break, a lot of energy is going into brand-building right now, along with a dose of secrecy, but hopefully some more concrete details will happen along soon.
Continue reading webOS team becomes Gram, isn’t heavy on mission statements
Filed under: Internet, Software
webOS team becomes Gram, isn’t heavy on mission statements originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Aug 2012 06:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
As Switched On discussed a few weeks ago, and as Microsoft noted in its recent 10-K filing, it is an unavoidable truth that the company getting into the hardware market will cause conflict with its partners. The extent of that conflict, though, depends on many variables and Microsoft can — and must — take steps to ameliorate it.
Continue reading Switched On: Surface damage
Filed under: Tablet PCs, Software
Switched On: Surface damage originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Aug 2012 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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