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Instead, I haven't touched the iPhone for eight weeks. WebOS is a delight, and I wish I'd had the guts to try it sooner; not only is the OS better thought out in many ways (multi tasking, global app menus, discreet notifications, OTA system updates, polished app switching, 'just type' launcher, the gesture area, and more) but the Enyo development kit has been easy to pick up, and hardware touches -- like the Touchstone charging dock -- make the device a joy to live with.
I'm currently porting an iOS app to WebOS, and will be launching future apps on both platforms, even though the WebOS userbase falls short of iOS and Android's reach. In short, I feel really positive about WebOS, and hope HP's acquisition of Palm will be the kick it needs to find the success it deserves.
I've been chomping at the bit to develop for anything besides my iPhone. I just can't afford any new phone right now.
[1]: http://pdnblog.palm.com/2011/02/mojo-and-enyo-two-great-oppo...
I agree Just Type, multitasking and notifications blow iOS's counterparts out of the water.
I will be very tempted to try out the Pre 3 (with its larger screen) and have been excited about the TouchPad even before I set fingers on the Pre 2.
There's a lot of competition for #3 in the phone space, but HP could easily take #2 in the tablet market given how rushed Honeycomb and the Playbook appear to be.
I think its all fine and dandy that they have semi-rewarded me with some free advertising, but as a developer, I really only care about writing a killer app and if there is no way to do certain things, or making me write a C++ browser extension just to properly cURL data, well its just not worth my time.
Being able to phonegap applications will help their count, but most developers know, those apps never feel purely native and the apps typically are extremely low powered, unintelligent apps.
I think that accounting for all that might be more of a recipe for disaster. Poor usability and a lack of strong apps, except for the occasional game (written in C++ as a browser plugin so they can opengl).
Their API's available to the browser extensions are basically just opengl related.
1. General responsiveness (iPhone leads)
2. Notifications (iPhone trails dramatically)
3. Web Page as a 1st class OS object. (WebOS is the only one that does this)
This third point is NEVER discussed. With Android and iOS, you have to go to the browser and then jump to a particular tab. When multi-tasking, this forces you to do more clicks through two different mental models. In WebOS, everything is a card. When you're trying to pull ESPN back up, you seek ESPN, not 'browser'.
Given google's position on the web, I am just surprised they haven't done a better job of this. It makes sense that Apple is making webpages 2nd class citizens, they want a 30% cut.
In WebOS, everything is a card. When you're trying to pull ESPN back up, you seek ESPN, not 'browser'.
The software was pretty great. The multitasking was perfect, Synergy was awesome. It wasn't quite as polished in some areas as iOS, but some things were also drastically superior. Also the inductive charging was awesome as well.
I got an iPhone on Verizon when it came out, and I really miss the multitasking. But what I don't miss is the hardware.
My Pre was literally starting to fall apart. It was all cheap, flimsy plastic, not durable at all. The difference in build quality of the iPhone was astonishing. And dramatic noticeable speed improvement.
WebOS was crippled by its horrible hardware. The software was competitive, even the best at times, but the Pre was just terrible hardware. It didn't have very fast specs, and the phone itself wasn't durable or high quality.
webOS 1.0 did do a lot of wacky/strange things that were annoying, though not bad enough for the phone to be useless. As well as the hardware problems, you'd get stuff like like the alarm going off a minute before it was supposed to (going by the phone's own time display). It would also repeatedly tell you every few minutes that it was unable to send an email message when no network was available.
They're reduced the number of annoyances in webOS 2.0, though, so I am hopeful for the Pre 3. (It also now has close to acceptable performance, instead of completely unacceptable performance.)
The marketing and app problems are much more difficult to solve; I'm not sure what they can do there. Throwing money at it, maybe...
If HP could put WebOS on quality hardware, it would be a killer device. Here's hoping the Pré3 can do it.
The question is, will the other mobile platforms borrow from it fast enough to make it totally irrelevant.
Honest question: really? Is anyone actually using this stuff in a serious way? I ask because I use only iOS basically so I may genuinely be missing this revolution that is taking place, but at least on iOS I have never downloaded an app that was phonegap, nor do I think any significant charting apps use it. Is it widely used for custom built apps or something? Or used a lot in android? Or is it actually not being used a lot?
Most people agreed that PhoneGap was the wrong framework. It's not that PhoneGap is intrinsically bad - it is not - but that it is not for every task, and more likely, it is not good for most tasks that are more than a short load-lookup-leave cycle.
Likewise in the phone segment, the third place slot is far from wrapped up. MeeGo was DOA and Windows Phone 7 isn't exactly lighting the sales charts on fire.
Solid execution from HP over the next 6 months could really ignite the webOS platform.
Objectively RIM is by far the 3rd biggest player (by some measures it is in the top 2), and I can't see how WebOS is magically going to leapfrog them. Playbook might not be perfect, but it's a lot better than the unshipped HP TouchPad.
In my head WinPhone7 is number 4 - and they at least have a strategy to move up in the market (aka Nokia).
WebOS might be lovely (I wouldn't know.. you can't buy it in my market - which says a lot), but I can list pages in Wikipedia for lovely platforms like WebOS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_machine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure etc etc)
In all reality, thats business. A company that was driving only a few thousand dollars of revenue a month isn't all the important compared to the ones probably doing 10-100x that. :|
I also disagree with the assessment of WP7 - I don't think the so-called "missteps" have even been noticed by the vast majority of consumers using WP7 phones. With Nokia maxing out their distribution channel to push WP7 phones I really can't see how WebOS is going to beat them. People are going to buy them just through sheer numbers of them on the shelves. It doesn't mean WP7 is going to succeed but certainly indicates WebOS is going to have a really hard time beating them.
WebOS fails on the laptop and desktop (e.g. is perceived as crap/bloat-ware or simply ignored). In this case the math doesn't look good.
WebOS succeeds on the laptop and desktop. This means that a whole bunch of users are willing to give up on Windows for their computing needs. Long overdue, since most people's computing needs are met by a web browser and a few other programs you can get for free. If this looks like happening, it's open season on the PC industry business model. Apple has already taken away the high margin market... this will be like a horde of hyenas ripping into a wounded wildebeest. I'm not sure this is actually a better outcome for HP.
ALL of the good customer facing people with companies that peddle PCs in my neck of the woods have either moved on to greener pastures or are holding out for retirement.
My guess is that in 2014, those 6+ year old PCs will start failing and be replaced with tablets for about 60% of the workers. I betcha that the rest will be PCs from no-frills vendors like Asus.
Big enterprises are very conscious of costs, and the "whale" of client-computing costs is that fat Microsoft EA that just gobbles up capital. That's a big cash flow to build a business case for an alternate product.
>>>Let’s do some math with that. If every one of those stores sold only one of our products every day during one year, that’d be 365 sales times 88,000 -- or thirty-two million and one-hundred and twenty thousand. Isn’t that incredible? Just one sale per store per day for one year.
I wasn't even getting into the whole desktop thing, just how webOS could like spread big in their tablets, phones, and printers.
(BTW that quote is me writing it the way Todd Bradley should have stated it in his dull presentation.)
WebOS (though better than Splashtop) faces much the same problem. It's going to take bolder moves than just making it available.
Angry Birds is coming to Windows Phone 7: http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/14/angry-birds-for-windows-phone-...
Mine too, few months ago I ran into some tutorials on getting started on developing for webOS on Mobiletuts+ and installed the webOS image for VirtualBox, and my impressions of webOS were positive. Since then a new version of webOS was released, I can only imagine that it's even better.
I really thought with HP they would make significant enhancements to the hardware, but so far I haven't seen anything too compelling. Still, it's a great OS and I wish them luck. I may take another look at it in the tablet form.
- The OS is great, but the hardware really falls behind... too small screen, poor battery: I'm wondering: I don't think you can have lots of success without both a great phone and a greato OS
- As for the free developer device offer, it seems they were a bit selective... I applied for it and didn't get any answer.
I started developing even before the device was released here in France, and have had to use the emulator since then. And that's a pain :(
Let's hope the Pre 3 will change these things (the Veer won't certainly have a bigger screen... And if I remember correctly you'll need an adaptator to connect earphones: that's definitely not a phone for me :))
Despite its sleek design, the craftsmanship was poor and the phone cracked in multiple places. The plastic screen also scratched very easily.
The worst part of it all is that the phone is underpowered. The processor is slower and has less RAM than its competition. This is why the phone performed so poorly despite having a great operating system.
I hope HP can make the next generation WebOS powered devices perform better because it really is a great OS.
Microsoft has enormous power on OEMs.
It's very dangerous to ignore their usual ways.
Microsoft's biggest hope for penetration is the Nokia partnership. Two frightened dinosaurs huddling in a cave as the comet approaches...
That's why discussions like this would no longer happen over e-mail. On a open field, during a social encounter with no witnesses and no lasting evidence it ever happened, I am not so sure.
Microsoft has always used discounts to modulate OEM licensing costs.