News & Analysis
Opinion: Palm won't give HP helping hand anytime soon
Rick Merritt
4/28/2010 8:21 PM EDT
Ostensibly, HP, which generally has been performing well under chief executive Mark Hurd, has the financial stability Palm needs. The handset maker has the innovative smartphone products HP lacks in its otherwise soup-to-nuts portfolio of home and business systems.
Without a cash influx soon, Palm will certainly fade away or die. But cash alone won't make the company's innovative Pre and Pixi smartphones and their core WebOS successful.
The hard reality is that despite its novel features and forward-thinking design, Palm's WebOS is literally the sixth or seventh priority on any developer's list. Unlike its many competitors, it lacks a unique position in the market.
Symbian commands the largest market share in smartphone environments today, but is undergoing a transition under Nokia's new ownership to an open source code base. Apple's iPhone environment has commanding mindshare among consumer developers with its deep and broad App Store.
Google Android is catching up fast. It has support from a broad array of handset makers and designs spreading far beyond cellphones in the hopes this is the unifying variant of Linux the market has been waiting for.
Research in Motion still has a lock on the business phone market with its "Crackberry" environment built around mobile email and now Web access. And don't count out Windows Mobile which has a lock on integration with the PC and server.
By contrast, WebOS has a context-sensitive interface that lets users find information in what it Palm touts as a more user-friendly way. It's an interesting approach but not strong enough on its own to crack the consumer strength of an Apple or Google or the business clout to unseat RIM.
HP is betting it's still early days for the smartphone. Indeed, even Intel and Nokia were willing recently to agree to hit the reset button on their separate Linux efforts to create a merged offering called Meego.
Both efforts will have to seek an opening with new market or technology discontinuities to avoid getting stuck with a sixth or seventh place platform. But such discontinuities are few and far between.
The reality is the season for starting over in smartphones is nearly done. The autumn of consolidation will soon be at hand, and HP has another quarter ahead just getting the deal completed and the new company integrated.
HP's iPaq handsets are virtually off the radar screen in today's smartphone market. The company can definitely save palm, but it's not clear Palm can put HP in the smartphone spotlight anytime soon.
|
|
|
|
|
garydpdx
4/28/2010 9:44 PM EDT
I think this is a great move by HP. With WebOS, HP will not be beholden to Google, Microsoft nor Symbian (Nokia) for its future mobile devices. It can push its products as part of its corporate solutions packages as well as retail to the consumer, especially as more computing moves away from traditional PC's. HP could have waited a year and saved $1 Billion but time is money, so they decided to move now!
Sign in to Reply
ConsumerEngineer
4/29/2010 9:51 AM EDT
The "Smart phone" is a dumb idea and is not a sustainable long term market. Palm was in the PDA market and many people won't even know what a PDA is because the market is long gone.
HP should stay out of the phone business because phones are a commodity item and the combination computer/phone will either 1) not happen, 2) remain a small and unprofitable market not worth the resources, public relations problems, and cost.
HP should work to make the PC a "Personal" computer again. Work with NVidia and/or AMD to harness the power of the graphics card to extend the capabilities. AI has yet to happen and it won't without the parallel processing available in the graphics card. AI won't happen without getting rid of Microsoft's outdated, bloated, buggy and expensive operating system.
AI on the PC is the market HP should be looking for. The challenges are significant, but the payback and the possibilities are unlimited.
Sign in to Reply
Baolt
4/29/2010 11:21 AM EDT
Its not the aim to get involved in smartphone market indeed they were player at early stages but get full access to innovative OS which lets users to have multiple programs running smoothly without consuming plenty of processor and memory. The future for smart mobile products are bright not just for phone based ones but tablet family also. As usual Apple got the lead and already over million sales. That market makes big players covetous. People dont need PCs nor notebooks which have own limitations. People are searching for funny, easy to use & carry, friendly and intelligent equipments which they can effort, play and be busy. Almost everybody has a PC/laptop to do biz. That is exactly what HP foresees and i believe Palm's handy webOS is capable of. If limited application problem, also compatibility and technical weakness of products are solved with high-performance ARM based solutions we will have lots of nice gadgets around not later than Xmas time. I agree with #John 787 webOS should be polished and charming for all manufacturers who dont have intention to pay lots of money on OS and weaken their slight profit margin even more. Like that HP can joy acquisition of Palm and earn much more back. I wonder with current culture of HP will it be enforceable at all...
Sign in to Reply
JZehr
4/29/2010 1:52 PM EDT
As a happy owner of a Pre, this is really good news. The device as a smart phone and has met all my needs, but updates for WebOS are slow in coming. The number of Apps are growing rapidly although I still feel I'm part of a niche crowd of users who all wish more people would take some time to take it for a spin and discover its strengths. Perhaps HP will change all that.
Re ConsumerEngineer's comments on AI... Huh? You're kidding, right? Not in our life-time!
Sign in to Reply
rick.merritt
4/29/2010 4:58 PM EDT
Besides making WebOS more open and providing financial stability, what else should HP do with Palm?
Sign in to Reply
CamilleK
5/2/2010 12:19 PM EDT
To answer Rick's question above, HP needs to use Palm to get a low power tablet out soon since rumors abound they scrapped their slate. I would also recommend targeting a few webOS developers to come up with an app-store and a few compelling applications to encourage more developers to join them. Given their biz user focus background, maybe start with a large mobile workforce like the realtors and optimize an app for them: call it RealtOS. Or GetRealty. Anyway, you got the idea.
Sign in to Reply