Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Check out the hottest Windows Mobile devices at our Expansys store!


Digital Home Thoughts

Loading feed...

Laptop Thoughts

Loading feed...

Android Thoughts

Loading feed...




Go Back   Thoughts Media Forums > WINDOWS PHONE THOUGHTS > Windows Phone Competition

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 04-28-2010, 10:13 PM
Jason Dunn
Executive Editor
Jason Dunn's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
Default HP Buys Palm for $1.2 Billion. Yes, Seriously.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/28/hp-buys-palm/

"HP and Palm, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors."

Of all the companies I was thinking about buying Palm, HP wasn't very high on the list - but now that I think about it, it makes quite a bit of sense. Palm has a lot of expertise in mobile devices, and by all accounts, their new generation of WebOS devices are pretty good. HP on the other hand has deep pockets and really struggled in the mobile space since PDAs became phones; they're never managed to have a very successful mobile device. They need people will skills and vision in the mobile phone space, something they've lacked for many years now. I wonder what this means for Windows phone 7? HP was a launch partner, and I was expecting them to release a Windows phone 7 device...I kind of doubt that will happen now. So, what are your thoughts on this? Engadget has a liveblog of the conference call as well.

__________________
Want to contact me personally? Use this. Want to read my personal blog? Check it out. Want to follow me on Twitter? Here you go.
 
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 04-28-2010, 11:15 PM
Janak Parekh
Editor Emeritus
Janak Parekh's Avatar
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171

I hate to be a skeptic, but I personally think HP will drive this into the ground even faster, as they did to their Jornada and Compaq's iPaq (n�e iPAQ) lines.

--janak
 
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 04-28-2010, 11:48 PM
Inventor
Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 50

>Jason Dunn
>Executive Editor

>Absolutely - it's not too late for HP to become relevant. The question though, is do they want to be?

I did some checking around the internet. Palm has a long list of carrier relationships and that�s a large part of the reason for the sale. HP is getting serious about mobile phones.
__________________
http://www.CeBeans.com
Did you get your beans Today?
 
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 04-29-2010, 12:14 AM
Don Tolson
Thoughts Media Review Team
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 749

I suspect Jason's right, that HP wanted to 'buy' knowledge and experience in the phone space, plus maybe some carrier contacts.

I think the WebOS is dead in the water. It's been superceded by the iPhone and even HTC's Sense overlay. HP will use the contacts and knowledge to rebuild their existing iPaq line into something smarter, more 'hep' and probably with the WP7 O/S on it.
__________________
/drt
 
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 04-29-2010, 12:23 AM
ptyork
Sage
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 639

First, I'm giddy happy about this because webOS is truly awesome and I'm REALLY glad it isn't going to die. It just needs some marketing and some better hardware. Now...

...here's my take on the actual deal. First, I think that HP sees everyone except RIM completely abandoning the enterprise market. WP7, iPhone, Android...all consumer-focused. HP is in just about every enterprise in the world. HP says, hmm, there might be some synergy there if we beef up the platform's enterprise features a bit and take over the #2 enterprise OS behind BB (from WM, of course).

Second, they want to play in the tablet space, but again be able to focus on enterprises and healthcare. Having full control over an OS (to say, add digitizer support and handwriting recognition) to something that isn't NEARLY as heavy as Windows 7 is very appealing.

I think it is a really smart play for HP. Yeah, maybe they'll lose interest as they did with the iPaq, but I really don't think so. I see this as them finally deciding to be a player in the fully-integrated mobile market. I really think this is a major deal, and a really good thing for the market.
 
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 04-29-2010, 01:35 AM
ptyork
Sage
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 639

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Tolson View Post
I think the WebOS is dead in the water. It's been superceded by the iPhone and even HTC's Sense overlay. HP will use the contacts and knowledge to rebuild their existing iPaq line into something smarter, more 'hep' and probably with the WP7 O/S on it.
I don't normally attack here and I'd love to say "maybe you're right" even, but you are just wrong. Sorry. Wow. That's just plain nonsense.
 
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 04-29-2010, 02:39 AM
Skoobouy
Theorist
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 279
Send a message via AIM to Skoobouy

Hi! I haven't posted to these forums in close to seven years.

But... wow. Remember Palm vs. Pocket PC?

In 2000, iPaq + PPC vs Palm + PalmOS.

In 2005, Palm Treos started running WinMo.

In 2010, HP devices will start running Palm's WebOS.

We have now come full circle.
__________________
iPAQ h3635 => Jornada 548 => Jornada 720 => Jornada 568 => iPAQ h1935 => iPAQ h1940 => Axim x50v
 
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 04-29-2010, 04:00 AM
whydidnt
Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202

Quote:
Originally Posted by Janak Parekh View Post
I hate to be a skeptic, but I personally think HP will drive this into the ground even faster, as they did to their Jornada and Compaq's iPaq (n�e iPAQ) lines.

--janak
I was going to post something very similar, but you beat me to it!

HP took over the iPaq line and from Compaq and completely ignored it. Since then, we've seen only half-hearted attempts to get into the smart phone space. Having said this, Todd Bradley, who heads up the HP mobile group or whatever they call it, is the same Todd Bradley that used to run Palm. He may have some desire to try and rebuild the empire, and HP has the deep pockets to do so.

However if recent history is any indicator, those of you owning a Pre or Pixi can kiss hope of any future upgrades goodbye! HP has shown no inclination to upgrade any of it's recent mobile devices beyond the shipping OS and a few small bug fixes.
 
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 04-29-2010, 01:51 PM
Craig Horlacher
Contributing Editor
Craig Horlacher's Avatar
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 524
Default Very Cool!

I think this is great! I'm glad a company with some resources bought them. I think WebOS is excellent and could have done great with better marketing and a little more strength behind it. I think the competition will be a good thing.

I think it would be funny if in the end the iPhone and WinMobile/phone would die off because of their closed and restricted natures and WebOS and Android would be the only ones left standing.

Sure, it will take a while for the iPhone to go away. Microsoft on the other hand is going to have a really hard time finding more people, besides those who are already in love with their iPhones, willing to buy such a restricted and limited device. Many current WinMo users are so because it was not very limited or restricted and therefor are not even candidates for WinPhone.

I'm really glad WebOS will probably not die off now and I look forward to seeing more devices that use it and even newer versions of it!

Maybe WebOS Thoughts should be on your list along with Android Thoughts
 
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 04-29-2010, 03:57 PM
felixdd
Philosopher
felixdd's Avatar
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 555
Send a message via ICQ to felixdd Send a message via AIM to felixdd Send a message via MSN to felixdd Send a message via Yahoo to felixdd

The problem with HP, IMHO, isn't the software part. It's the hardware. The Ipaq was only good when they were still contracting from HTC. After that relationship dissolved, their devices were rote and uninspired.

Palm's strength is not hardware either, although on that front they are decent. But only just.

I don't see how buying Palm will be a good fit to help with HP's weakness, as I see it anyways.
 
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 07:25 PM.