Mobile

Why webOS is a good fit for HTC

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief September 12, 2011 · 2 min read

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TNT reports that HTC is considering purchasing webOS from HP after the latter announced that it will be ditching the OS.

That and Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola Mobility, all Android manufacturers have technically become competitors to the big G. While everyone is all smiles, I’m sure their CEOs are also a bit worried.

So here’s a really good opportunity with webOS and I’m thinking HTC would be in a good position to snap up the mobile OS.

HTC does not have a native smartphone OS. It has been very dependent on licensing other OSes like Windows Phone 7 and Android. The last time it used the Brew OS from Qualcomm was with the HTC Smart (which wasn’t very successful). By having its own OS, HTC will not be at the mercy of other companies and partners.
Samsung continues to invest in their own Bada OS so it’s obvious they have a back-up plan. HTC does not have a back-up plan and webOS fits perfectly well.
HTC can certainly afford webOS. It’s got a market cap of $24 billion right now, bigger than Nokia. If they can afford to invest in Beats by Dr. Dre, I’m sure they’ll get better returns with webOS.
webOS needs a good home and HTC’s excellent hardware track record certainly complements it.

It would be really good to see webOS live on and HTC seems to be the right company to continue its legacy.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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32 Comments

daniel · 15 years ago

tainted na ng bad image ang webOS kaya i dont think this is a good idea. sa akin kasi tumatak na na walang bumibili at nalulugi… in fact pag binili nila to… 3rd owner na sila… parang babaeng gamit tapos ipinasa nalang sa iba. haha :)

von · 15 years ago

why does it have to be webos? why not meego? haha

Gumz · 15 years ago

Good News, for competition. Hopefully they can market the webOS very well and also to developers.

Quobetah · 15 years ago

In todays smartphone race it isnt just about having your own OS, but having your own ecosystem. Yes webOS is pretty, and with the right hardware its speed could fly (like when it was ported on an ipad 2), but the biggest problem are apps. Without it, its just another trying hard smartphone. If its to be bought by HTC, they should be ready not just to purchase it and imorove it and make a gorgeous phone/tablet for it, but invest in wooing in devs and marketing to get an ecosystem off te ground.

Bon · 15 years ago

Seriously? WebOS? It’s already been killed by HP due to it’s weak sales and support… why revive it? Besides, Larry Page already admitted that Android will remain open despite the Google/Motorola merger, so HTC doesn’t really have anything to fear.

dan · 15 years ago

WebOS is dead… binitiwan na nga eh

fr0stbyte · 15 years ago

To add, I support all those other mobile operating systems because I believe competition is good. It would be great to have a choice of OS aside from iOS and Android that is streamlined and at the same time, can compete in terms of user experience and usability.

fr0stbyte · 15 years ago

WebOS has a future.. They just have to support it all the way.. And don’t price it like the iPad. No one will buy WebOS tablets if they do. I’m far from an Apple fanboy (more of an Android fanboy here) but you can’t compete with iOS in the iPad as of now. The iPad just works and I myself admit that. Start small HP. You’ll prosper in the end if you do.

nameless · 15 years ago

No matter what happens here, GNU Linux as an Operating System will be the sure winner here :) Go Linux! Windows for PC, Mac for tablets, but Linux for smartphones/tablets!

JMango · 15 years ago

While HTC can buy it, it probably won’t be the smart choice right now. That is of course, unless the price they’re buying it for is rock-bottom. Here’s why it would be a huge risk:

1. It’s a nice OS that never really got any market attraction. The market views it as a dead OS right now, can HTC bring it back to life?

2. Android has been good for the handset maker. WP7 is already a good enough back-up plan for them.

3. In order for a smartphone OS to survive nowadays, they must woo developers over. To woo developers over, they need to move handsets. WebOS is in a chicken and egg scenario, where there are no developers, and no buyers.

4. There’s MeeGo, arguably a better platform than WebOS. It’s a slick OS that has the potential to attract customers.

beef · 15 years ago

valid points man.. I just gotta ask about number 4. why is Meego an arguably better platform than WebOS.. from everything I’ve read on both of them, they both seem pretty good.. In fact, I actually think that if it was google pushing any one of these two instead of android, then we would have WebOS or Meego phones now instead of our Androids..

anon · 15 years ago

Sherwin · 15 years ago

I hope htc will bring the same experience “htc sense” onto the webOS.

Ederic · 15 years ago

Sana, matuloy ‘to. Finally magkakaroon na ng maayos na hardware ang webOS. :-)

e · 15 years ago

so does it mean that hp’s hardware is not good for their webOS?

Pier · 15 years ago

HTC is known for just adding a UI layer on an already built OS. Not sure kung nasa kakayahan nila ang magsagawa ng performance improvements on a kernel level. Sana lang kaya nila if they would acquire WebOS.