HTC eyeing webOS purchase to compete with Apple's iOS
Smartphone maker HTC has publicly stated it is considering buying its own mobile operating system platform, with HP's webOS a potential option for acquisition.
Cher Wang, chairwoman of HTC, said her company is currently considering the purchase of its own mobile operating system, according to Focus Taiwan. However, she said the Taiwanese company is in no rush to make a deal.
Specifically, Wang admitted that HTC has eyed buying webOS from Hewlett-Packard, which the company may sell as it looks to focus on more profitable software and services. HP acquired webOS in an acquisition from Palm in a $1.2 billion deal in April of 2010.
"We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse," Wang reportedly said of buying webOS from HP.
The chairwoman touted her company's ability to differentiate its smartphones from competitors by implementing its own "HTC Sense" user interface. Sense has been used on HTC's Windows Mobile-based smartphones, and is also found on the company's newer Android-powered devices.
Wang also commented on Google's acquisition of Motorola for $12.5 billion, announced in August. The HTC executive said Google made the "correct" decision to buy Motorola Mobility for its patent portfolio.
HTC became a direct beneficiary of the Google-Motorola deal last week, when the Taiwanese handset maker filed a new lawsuit against Apple based on patents acquired from Google. The complaint, which is the third HTC has filed against Apple, accuses the iPhone maker of violating nine patents transferred to HTC by Google on Sept. 1. Apple first filed its own patent infringement suit against HTC in March of 2010.
HTC's interest in webOS comes after the company was forced into a patent licensing deal with Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash., software giant is rumored to receive a large $5-per-device for the use of patented inventions in a settlement that raised concerns that handsets running Google Android also face high royalty fees from Apple.
If HTC does decide to pursue a purchase of webOS, it may have to compete with rival Android handset maker Samsung, which is also rumored to be eyeing an acquisition of the smartphone software. Like HTC, Samsung is also involved in a number of patent infringement suits with Apple around the globe.
Cher Wang, chairwoman of HTC, said her company is currently considering the purchase of its own mobile operating system, according to Focus Taiwan. However, she said the Taiwanese company is in no rush to make a deal.
Specifically, Wang admitted that HTC has eyed buying webOS from Hewlett-Packard, which the company may sell as it looks to focus on more profitable software and services. HP acquired webOS in an acquisition from Palm in a $1.2 billion deal in April of 2010.
"We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse," Wang reportedly said of buying webOS from HP.
The chairwoman touted her company's ability to differentiate its smartphones from competitors by implementing its own "HTC Sense" user interface. Sense has been used on HTC's Windows Mobile-based smartphones, and is also found on the company's newer Android-powered devices.
Wang also commented on Google's acquisition of Motorola for $12.5 billion, announced in August. The HTC executive said Google made the "correct" decision to buy Motorola Mobility for its patent portfolio.
HTC became a direct beneficiary of the Google-Motorola deal last week, when the Taiwanese handset maker filed a new lawsuit against Apple based on patents acquired from Google. The complaint, which is the third HTC has filed against Apple, accuses the iPhone maker of violating nine patents transferred to HTC by Google on Sept. 1. Apple first filed its own patent infringement suit against HTC in March of 2010.
HTC's interest in webOS comes after the company was forced into a patent licensing deal with Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash., software giant is rumored to receive a large $5-per-device for the use of patented inventions in a settlement that raised concerns that handsets running Google Android also face high royalty fees from Apple.
If HTC does decide to pursue a purchase of webOS, it may have to compete with rival Android handset maker Samsung, which is also rumored to be eyeing an acquisition of the smartphone software. Like HTC, Samsung is also involved in a number of patent infringement suits with Apple around the globe.
Comments
Too bad the pipe's full of malaria.
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"It's a genius move" they said.
A bidding war for WebOS between HTC and Samsung would be quite entertaining.
"I want to bankrupt my cell phone department first!" "No, me!" "No, ME!"
webOs already destroyed Palm, whacked HP and now HTC?
Jon Rubinstein a secret Apple mole?
webOs already destroyed Palm, whacked HP and now HTC?
I'd argue that poor management killed every iteration of WebOS. WebOS in itself has a lot of potential.
What it lacked was good HW, the Palm/HP devices were old when released, too slow and build quality was poor.
Similarly the app store was limited, meaning poor device adoption, meaning no incentive for developers. A vicious circle.
HTC can fix this and also give themselves a real identity beyond the HW.
I'd argue that poor management killed every iteration of WebOS. WebOS in itself has a lot of potential.
yes. as Samsung is showing with Bada, WebOS needs a company that (1) is not looking for WebOS to be its immediate savior (2) but is willing to stick with it and develop it over the course of years, building up an inventory of products gradually. HTC fits that criteria. or Toshiba. (but not Sony, altho they might buy it in desperation anyway, given how Sony's long time dependence on Windows and now Android too for all its smart hardware has totally failed to sell those products.)
we'll see where it winds up. someone is going to buy it from HP (with HP retaining the right to use what they come up with).
It actually multi-tasks?
What the frick does this even MEAN?!
Do you see two applications on the screen at once? Do inputs simultaneously apply to multiple applications at once? WHAT?
What about other OS' makes it "true" multitasking?
?and actually has decent notifications.
*coughiOS5cough*
I'm wondering why apple doesn't purchase webOS. I'm sure there's some good stuff they could use.
But thinking deeper, letting someone like HTC get it deprives android of a major partner. Stunt androids growth by reduced HTC-android powered phones being replaced with WebOS?
Once other partners see HTC's success at weening itself off of android, others would follow suit. So unless Google can get their Googlerola phone out the doors quick, Android would see a DROP in handset activations.
IDK. Flimsy thinking?
As long as Google remained the search partner, I don't know that they'd be that concerned. The whole idea for Google offering a smartphone OS was to help prevent Microsoft and Apple from locking them out of the mobile advertising space.
What the frick does this even MEAN?!
Do you see two applications on the screen at once? Do inputs simultaneously apply to multiple applications at once? WHAT?
What about other OS' makes it "true" multitasking?
*coughiOS5cough*
Come on, don't you see? If your phone can't continue to play a video in the background while you're reading your emails, then it FAILS. If it can't continue to keep a game running while you're flipping through your playlists, then it FAILS! It's not about battery life, or resource management, or even common sense, it's about true multitasking. Don't you get it???
</sarcasm>
Wouldn't it more sense for HTC to fork Android?
This sounds like they're doing exactly that.
As long as Google remained the search partner, I don't know that they'd be that concerned. The whole idea for Google offering a smartphone OS was to help prevent Microsoft and Apple from locking them out of the mobile advertising space.
Google offers smart phone OS because they want more than your search data. They want every data from you: your search, contact, location etc.
Yes, they would be worried.
What the frick does this even MEAN?!
Do you see two applications on the screen at once? Do inputs simultaneously apply to multiple applications at once? WHAT?
What about other OS' makes it "true" multitasking?
What he's implying is that it doesn't intelligently balance mutli-tasking; instead it just continues to run everything in the background. I don't know what someone would want to open a web browser and have their video playing in the background despite not being abel to see it, especially on a mobile device with limited performance and power resources, but apparently some think that is awesome. Personally I'd rather have intelligent multi-tasking like in iOS where Mail loads emails, Phone and Messages work seamlessly in the background, web-pages still load after I leave Safari, and music plays while I complete any other task in the OS.
PS: Remember all the grief that Push Notifications received? It's absolutely brilliant service to reduce the polling for new messages down to a couple small services but some people just wanted to have every app running in full polling servers 24/7 (assuming they were still plugged into a power source).
I'd argue that poor management killed every iteration of WebOS. WebOS in itself has a lot of potential.
There is no doubt webOS has potential and that poor management has harmed significantly. The problem is all that bad vodoo is likely to cause negativity in the community. I'm not talking just consumers here but also developers.
Look at it from the developers standpoint how many times do these guys have to get screwed over before they say no more! Even if Samsung gave away piles of cash I think they would have a very hard time attracting viable developers. It could be years before people feel comfortable writing for the platform.
On the other hand HTC needs an ethical choice over Android. At this time webOS is about the only solution ready to go. In the end they may have no choice.