Yesterday brought a few quotes from HP’s CEO Mark Hurd that sent the webOS community into a state of panic and concern over HP’s commitment to smartphones. The killer quote, “We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business“, made headlines throughout the blogosphere. Today we get clarification in the form of an official statement (via Engadget) from HP that should have webOS enthusiasts feeling a bit more enthusiastic about the future of webOS as it relates to smartphones.
When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones. We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devices, and we expect to expand webOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market, all while leveraging our financial strength, scale, and global reach to grow in smartphones.
YaY!!!! Can’t happen fast enough. HP has the ability to do incredible things with webOS. This aside from the fact that they have marketing and distribution resources Palm could have only dreamed about. I hope they don’t screw it up. They need to also consider the overall environment. Lets face it the average consumer is not concerned with the posibilities of the platform but how easily they have access to everything that they want. That’s what Apple has created a user environment where everything is at your fingertips. HP can use this model but not box the consumer in like Apple has, butthey need to hurry because Google is already moving in that direction and in this race you don’t want to be the last one to the table. Just my two cents.
– sent from my Palm Pre : )
Are they thinking in a combo package?
A Palm webos smarphone with a HP Slate webos?
Are these devices going to be interconnected with other devices besides printers?
In what ecosystem is HP thinking about?