HP‘s acquisition of Palm and its webOS mobile operating system is seen as somewhat of a failed effort, but webOS is not seen as a bygone. HP is continuing its effort to make it a secure, open platform. They just brought open webOS out of beta a couple of days ago, and it sounds like they are planning something big for the now open source mobile OS.
It has been learnt that HP is in the process of hiring 50 developers for the webOS platform, giving a new turn to the company’s troubled mobile market play. Reported first by The Powerbase, the job openings are in Shanghai, China and Sunnyvale, California. All are said to be of high-paying engineering positions.
HP is giving out a good sign by committing to make webOS secure and open source. It shows the company hopes something that can come of an effort that has had its fair share of failures and lost opportunities.
One key issue arises, that what will HP do with it in the end? As The Powerbase points out, let’s just hope that HP doesn’t do anything foolish enough to put webOS back into the consumer market.
Here’s a sample of the job openings:
The future of webOS lies in the enterprise. The market is not done with. The company has to face stiff opposition from Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. Apple has come out good but it’s not committed in making an enterprise play. The Android platform is not in good shape and RIM is all but dead.
HP is committed to webOS. We’ll just have to wait to see what this commitment means. To read the original story, click here.
The Mobile App Ecosystem has come to saturation. More and more Open Source OS’ face the problem of fragmentation. webOS is IMO is a touch optimized platform compared to the likes of iOS and QNX. It has to compete with Tizen to mark its prominence. Anyways, HP should act smart for inviting people who are in the solace of Apple and Droid.