04-30-2010, 03:33 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 468
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I'm writing this as a former long-time HP employee, an even longer time HP customer, and a Palm Pre owner. In fact, I'm writing this on my HP tx2 tablet PC, tethered to my Palm Pre for Internet access...
I think this is a fantastic deal for Palm, which was running out of options, and a good deal for HP. I expect that HP will remain a Microsoft partner and will indeed release a Windows 7 Phone device, or more than one, as planned. But they will also release devices on webOS, including phones and larger devices. I'm certain that webOS will be an option on the upcoming HP Slate, for example.
Much like Windows 7 Phone, webOS would make for a very good experience on larger screens, like slates and tablets, and I expect that HP has recognized that. They are large enough to also remain a vendor of Microsoft-based devices, but I think they know that they've been eclipsed by HTC and others on the Windows Mobile side and they clearly see how well Apple has done and what Google is doing.
HP obviously wants to have their own integrated solution, with hardware and software closely tied together, to compete with the others.
I was a Windows Mobile customer and fan for many, many years, and I like my Palm Pre now very well. I had been planning on moving to the Windows Phone 7 platform around the end of the year, fully expecting Palm to either cease to exist, or to have a small enough market share not to really matter any more. With this deal, I may have to rethink my plans and may very well have a tough choice to make between WP7 and webOS.
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