WebOS Wrap Up

There has been both good news and bad news for WebOS fans this week. News has leaked that HP's Asian manufacturers are planning up to six new Palm devices which would all presumably run WebOS 2.0. Speaking of 2.0, if you like the PalmOS 5.x emulator, or MotionApps Classic, they aren't supporting WebOS beyond 1.x. Oh yeah. HP has unveiled a new logo for its mobile platform.TelecomPaper is reporting that Foxconn Technology and Compal Communications have been issued purchase orders by HP to between five and six new phones. Compal will do one of them and Foxconn the balance. They are all going to be based on WebOS, which should lay any lingering rumors to rest that HP might use other platforms alongside Palm's.

Palm launched WebOS in the summer of 2009 with the Pre and the followed up a few months later with the Pixi. Neither set the sales charts on fire and the Plus variants garnered yawns when released. Instead of saving the company, Palm was sliding sideways at best and was forced to put itself up for sale. HP purchased it this spring and has been funding the development of WebOS 2.0 as well as he design of the new devices. For most companies, this would be the last hurrah. Without substantial success with this release, the company would have to cease development.

HP, however, is going to be using WebOS is a number of different devices, including a tablet that Foxconn will be making in addition to the smartphones. That means they are going to put substantial resources behind WebOS. That makes it easier to release phones along the way as costs are spread over many different form factors. Let's hope the phones are compelling.

Apparently WebOS 2.0 no longer supports the PalmOS 5.x Garnet libraries according to Palm InfoCenter which means MotionApps no longer has in the OS what it needs to develop its Classic emulator. MotionApps will continue to support WebOS 1.x devices for the foreseeable future, but that's it. In a last ditch effort to keep PalmOS alive, they are donating all of their code to HP. My gut says HP will stick it on a shelf somewhere, but who knows? PalmOS fans could be pleasantly surprised.

In other news, neither good nor bad, HP has a new logo for its Palm division. Engadget posted it on Thursday and you can see it live on Palm's home page. This makes the fifth logo for the company and the fourth one in this decade alone. Wikipedia has a summary of logo's at the bottom of the Palm, Inc. article if that sort of thing interests you.