Fresh off the announcement of the Amazon Kindle Fire, there comes word from Venture Beat that HP is looking to sell-off Palm. Sources within HP say that Amazon is close to finalizing the deal. Amazon’s Kindle Fire uses a heavily customized version of Android. By purchasing Palm, perhaps they would migrate to webOS and possibly remove themselves from the legal tangles being experienced by other Android manufacturers.
Amazon’s Kindle Fire is largely a media consumption device, so there is no reason why webOS wouldn’t work nicely as the default OS. It would represent a major shift, considering the Android based Kindle Fire lands in mid-November. Will Amazon dump Android and move to webOS for the second generation Kindle Fire? That would render purchased apps rendered useless and make for a tough transition for early adopters.
Perhaps Amazon is willing to endure some short term pain, with the hopes that owning their own OS would be the best move for their future in the mobile space.
Never count out Palm. The company has a thousand lives.
Source: Venture Beat