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Comment by yalogin | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it a little too late now? WebOS is way behind in terms of functionality compared to Android and so even someone picks it up they need to spend considerable time and resources to bring it up to par to compete with it. It has to be some company that does not mind waiting and spending the resources. I don't see any one in that position right now. Unless this is purely a move to generate excitement in the developer community so that HP can at least make a meaningful effort to push it.

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Some of the contact stuff they did in WebOS with Synergy is actually very much ahead of it's time. Android had now caught up to it a bit with ICS and their "People" card. There's also a fairly large "homebrew" community for WebOS with lots of hacks, etc.

It was ahead of its time. Windows Phone picked up where WebOS left off on that measure, and did it quite well. They also grabbed the cards feature and put it to use (though without real-time multitasking).

All the features that should have made WebOS the best-selling platform ever have now been incorporated into the competing products. The fact that Windows Phone is basically WebOS with the homebrew taken out but is still lagging far behind in sales goes a long way towards showing that features matter much less than advertising and hype.

> Android had now caught up to it a bit with ICS and their "People" card

Not surprising, seeing as how Google hired the guy who designed the webOS UI, Matias Duarte, to lead Android UI development starting with ICS...

too late? Why? The iPad is only at version 2, and Android tablets are having a hard time to take off (while the HP TouchPad has been selling very well apparently). Honestly, I am using one, and I have an Android phone (Nexus S) I don't think it's that far behind (and there are other good features I don't have on Android).

Disclaimer: I'm right now an intern at HP, but I'm first a Free Software hacktivist and user.

hp is selling well because they are selling $500 hardware at $100, which a lot of people are putting android on.

It doesn't matter why they are selling well, what matters is that there are about a quarter million TouchPads in users' hands right now.

That's a healthy install base, and makes working on an open source OS for the device a worthwhile proposition.

From there, it will hopefully be a virtuous cycle, as people buy devices that can run WebOS because of a healthy developer community.

Android may be further ahead in features, but there's a lot of people who got a TouchPad in HP's firesale who would want extra functionality and now they can add it. I hope a OpenOS project starts soon rather than loads of people rushing to add small bits.

This may be true assuming that targeting those platforms is desirable.

Now if you're in the market to do something new...

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