At the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas the Palm Pre with its WebOS was all the rage. Everyone called it the 'iPhone killer'. At the time it might have been a real competitor but Palm took too long to bring its innovative operation system to market.
By the time Palm brought out the phone, Apple had already incorporated most of the features that made the Palm WebOS stand apart into the iPhone via updates. HTC also helped displace the demand for Palm with its Sense UI and great Android designed phones.
Palm has really gone downhill since then and Hewlett-Packard (HP) ended up buying it out for $1.2 billion. That amount may sound like a lot but it is pocket change for HP. CEO Mark Hurd had stated HP is not going to use the WebOS to enter the smartphone market. That is very surprising since that is what everyone, myself included thought was going to happen. HP later clarified that they would be using the OS for more than just smartphones. That is more in line with the public consensus. It would be great if they took the Android route and used it on everything. Maybe even license it out to manufactures. It is good to know the once a great phone and platform will not be reduced to just web-connected printers.
Apple iPhone remains alone as king of the hill in the smartphone world. Blackberry may lead in market share but not public opinion. When Blackberry releases it's rumored touch friendly OS 6 that might change. Only Android poses a real challenge. It has great phones out now with more on the way. Android still has a long way to go due to the small amount of apps in its Market. Note to Microsoft: Palm failed for many reasons but its lack of apps was the main one.
[Via BGR]
