I think HP should skunkworks it. Round up all the engineers who developed the platform, form an independent LLC, retain an equity stake, and let them proceed with full autonomy.
Tablet and smartphone hardware is going to get so dirt cheap in just a few years, that they'll probably be able to outsource all the hardware and run the operation like a scrappy startup.
Unfortunately, it seems like HP will probably lock webOS in a vault for its patents, dooming it to die.
HP has already made it clear that they won't put in another dime.
The problem with hardware is that the enterprise won't buy without a big name backing it as it makes it alot less likely that the brand will be around.
I'd like to think that your idea will work.
What is your "secret sauce" that will make this work that didn't with Palm, HP, the crunch pad, newton, Go tablet, etc?
That's a pretty big assumption but lets say that's true. I don't doubt that they coudl raise some money, I'm just not sure that a WebOS company could raise enough to fund a complete hardware and software product through to finish.
The biggest reason I think this wouldn't happen is that I can't see HP wanting to assign any patents to this company as patents have significant value, as we've seen of late.
Who would support a company that doesn't own any sort of patent portfolio to defend itself?
Apparently, this is what happens to Palm operating systems.