A lot of people thought that webOS had something to offer, something different than iOS, something better, which is why it came as such a huge surprise that HP decided to kill it off. Of course, webOS may still have a part to play in the tablet war that’s been raging against Apple — it just won’t be at HP. Some have publicly guessed that HP would license webOS to other hardware manufacturers, and others have claimed that HP was looking to sell off webOS entirely to another company, most notably, Samsung.
Today, another report from DigiTimes speculates that Samsung may not be looking to purchase HP’s consumer computer lineup. Instead, they may be looking to purchase webOS from HP.
Personally I’d rather see HTC purchase webOS, but any company that puts webOS back on the market gets a nice little gold star in my book.
What the move would provide
Samsung just saw themselves lose a court battle because Android infringed on an Apple patent. Controlling the user experience from beginning to end is something that only Apple has done at this point, and Samsung getting their hands on webOS, should it turn out to be true, would certainly be the first major step in controlling everything about their phones and tablets from beginning to end.
Don’t forget that there’s a lot of Android partners that should be plenty paranoid that Google just bought up Motorola Mobility. webOS could get Samsung, or any other company that purchases the OS, out of Google’s grasp before Google could potentially pull the plug on their partnership program.
I’ve gone on the record before, and I’ll say it again: webOS was probably the best mobile OS outside of iOS, and it had the best shot at giving Apple a run for their money. I was pretty surprised to hear that HP might let it go.
Source: DigiTimes
Via: AppleInsider
