Smartphone vendors have shown interest in alternative operating systems lately. In Korea, Samsung has had some success with its own mobile platform, called Bada. Meanwhile, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has announced an OS called Aliyun that has attracted the attention of several smartphone makers. Because it is relatively mature, WebOS may be similarly attractive to manufacturers such as HTC, Huawei, and ZTE, which might not want to risk falling behind by not offering platforms of their own.
Unfortunately, if competing with Bada and Aliyun is the goal, it won't do much good for today's WebOS developers, most of whom have been developing apps for Western markets, in Western languages.
But WebOS could be appealing to smartphone manufacturers for Western markets, too. Only Apple can build iOS devices, which leaves the rest of the smartphone vendors to choose between Android or Windows Phone 7. Android is the clear market winner, but as more and more Android devices flood the market, it's getting harder for vendors to differentiate their products. A third OS option would allow manufacturers to offer a few smartphones that stand out from the crowd, even as they concentrate the bulk of their efforts on Android.
Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility gives smartphone makers another reason to be wary of Android. They may well decide it's worth the risk to gamble on an underdog like WebOS when the alternative is direct competition with a rival that has insider knowledge of the Android platform and influence over its future direction. The mobile carriers, too, have expressed concern over the prospect of a smartphone OS duopoly shared by two highly vertically integrated platforms -- so they may more than welcome a second chance for WebOS.
HP should cut its losses now
For any of these scenarios to succeed, however, HP must set aside the notion that it will be able to handle development, licensing, and management of WebOS on its own. There is absolutely no evidence that it is competent to do so. HP bought Palm in April 2010 for $1.2 billion; less than 18 months later, it's essentially throwing in the towel, with barely anything to show for the effort.
One option might be to spin off the WebOS unit as its own company, but this strategy fared poorly for Palm when it spun off the original Palm OS in 2003. Instead, HP should negotiate to sell its stake in WebOS outright, to whichever smartphone maker or carrier offers the best terms. And then it should bid farewell.
The alternative, unfortunately, is precisely the scenario the doomsayers have been predicting. HP is steadily gaining a reputation as the company where good products go to die. If that's really the path WebOS is on now, developers would be right to get out before the ship sinks. After all, we'll see WebOS again anyway -- maybe in a few more years, when HP gives up and releases it as open source.
This article, "Why developers shouldn't abandon WebOS yet," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Neil McAllister's Fatal Exception blog and follow the latest news in programming at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.