[Laminar]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Noooo..... nooo.....

[Sealobo]

This is the most boringest "merger" ever.

[Hawkeye_a]

Woah didn't see that coming.

If HP-Palm, roll out a unified WebOS platform across most/all of their mobile device SKUs(phones, tablets), with services to back up the platform (App stores, music, etc), i think we could finally see an Apples-for-Apples(pun intended) competitor in the mobile devices space. They need to keep the business/products "vertical" and take ownership of the entire experience the way Apple has.

Questions:
-How long will it take before we see the fruit (products) of this merger ?
-What does this mean for WindozePhone7 ?

I'm an Apple fanboy, and i liked Palm's philosophies. It always seemed like Palm lacked the economies of scale to compete at the same level as the Apples and Microsofts of this world(recently anyway). I think with HP, they(the talent of Palm) gained the necessary scale and delivery channel, resources, etc...to deliver a competitive product.

The major wildcard here is 'execution'; how HP will choose to deliver products, will they have a dozen different phones and a dozen tablets (which would be bad) ? with no services, etc ? They have a huge opportunity here, and maybe if they dont F it up, they could present the first real competitor to Apple's mobile devices business since the iPod was introduced. IMHO

Cheers

[analogue SPRINKLES]

All I see happening is HP coming out with a beefed up webOS for HP tablets slightly cheaper than an iPad with 100% more plastic, vents and seams. At best after trying to push their apps over apple's and androids they will score 8% of the tablet market share that apple is leading.

It's the beginning of an era where computers are just a small cheap screen where the OS doesn't matter and it is all about the apps and cloud.

Selling devices at $400 with low margins and your competitors all offer similar it is a scary market to even want to be in.

Oh and windows 7 mobile is really screwed.

[mattyb]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

Woah didn't see that coming.

No, that was out of the blue.

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a 

They have a huge opportunity here, and maybe if they dont F it up, they could present the first real competitor to Apple's mobile devices business since the iPod was introduced. IMHO

Trouble is, HP have nobody (AFAIK) on board who knows how to ensure another Compaq doesn't happen. I never thought that HP were 'dynamic' in the computer space. They always seemed to be another computer company that was in third or fourth place. I presume printing is the exception.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Oh and windows 7 mobile is really screwed.

How so? It's not a tablet OS, and people still need phones.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by mattyb 

Trouble is, HP have nobody (AFAIK) on board who knows how to ensure another Compaq doesn't happen. I never thought that HP were 'dynamic' in the computer space. They always seemed to be another computer company that was in third or fourth place. I presume printing is the exception.

Since they are keeping most of the Palm leadership in place, I don't think that'll happen.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

How so? It's not a tablet OS, and people still need phones.

WebOS can easily be made into a tablet OS, It just needs a resolution upping and GUI tweek. If HP can already make full touchscreen skins to run on-top of windows XP they can do that.

Yes people still need phones, doesn't mean we need too many options.

Pretend you have your own cell company like HTC or Sony....

1) Android is free and has no hardware or software restrictions. You can make whatever goofy looking phone you want and run a skinned android on it. It has been out for a couple years and has all they checkbox features like "multitasking, open, flash". It also has 50,000 apps and a large user base.

2) Windows mobile will cost $12-30 PER device you want to install it on. It also does NOT allow skinning and it has very strict requirements on hardware specs and button layout/functions. It has not even shipped and has 0 customers and 0 apps. When it ships at the END of the year it will take about a year to gain any real market share. So at the end of 2011 they might have a tiny app catalogue and tiny user base. By then Android and iPhone will be twice as big as they are now. It is a total re-write so developers have to start from scratch and there is no backwards emulation.

Which would you choose. Before you think $12 to licence an OS is not much keep in mind they still have to have specs in the phone like OLED and 10MP camera to make it more appealing to all the other phones out there. These things cost more money but the end result is that it has to be the same price or lower than everyone else.

The Nintendo gamecube didn't play DVD's to save the $5 licence per unit Nintendo would have to pay and rather pocket. Apple is famous in the 90's for taking some part of the later model powerbook to save $0.50 per unit that everyone was all upset over. Thing is after you sell 500,000 of these things that's an extra $250,000 in cash and it makes a difference.

On top of all that MS is going to be playing catch up with the tablet wave after google, Apple and now HP are already in the game.

Why would anyone want option #2? To stand out? Nobody loves windows Mobile 6.5 or microsoft and is drooling for the end of the year to come.

With fragmentation like this it always comes down to 2 main players and a bunch of little guys. It's gonna be Apple vs Google with blackberry and Windows following the leader. Symbian, palm will pick up the scraps.

[Paco500]

Aside from printers, I'm trying to think of one HP product I've ever really wanted to buy. I'm coming up blank. I've never used WebOS, but from most reports, it's pretty nice. I'm just skeptical that hp's culture will ever allow to produce a product I'd want to buy.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Paco500 

Aside from printers, I'm trying to think of one HP product I've ever really wanted to buy. I'm coming up blank. I've never used WebOS, but from most reports, it's pretty nice. I'm just skeptical that hp's culture will ever allow to produce a product I'd want to buy.

Exactly. Nobody here will get one over an iPad. Even if they do it will be 1% of the average customer. If they cant' come out with something BETTER we won't buy it.

We all know it is not going to be metal and glass but have 23 vent holes so I am already uninterested.

[Phileas]

Originally Posted by Paco500 

I'm just skeptical that hp's culture will ever allow to produce a product I'd want to buy.

And that's exactly the problem. As AS says, it'll have way too many vents and will be made from shitty plastic.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

As is becoming apparent both high end hardware features and operating systems are becoming irrelevant.

The iPad is pretty much a high quality picture frame LCD with a fast enough CPU and OS you just use intuitively. The point is the Apps. When you launch the app it becomes whatever it needs to become for its use. It isn't limited to hardware buttons, catering to the lowest common denominator. It just becomes whatever the dev wants it to become.

In 3 years the iPad will look almost the same as it does it now. If the screen gets bigger so does everything else. Nobody is complaining about the screen size or battery either. The only thing they can add is a camera and faster CPU and memory which there is no huge need for now anyway.

How can you compete with a $500 device with the best build amazing specs and the most app support?
Seriously? OLED screen that costs you a fortune and licence an OS off someone but still sell it for $450?

Good luck.