Thread: WebOS was a chance

The biggest flop of the technology in 2011 was certainly HP TouchPad. At the beginning of the year in grand style exuberantly announced , introduced in mid-August, after only seven weeks to sell again . The official reason: Too low sales figures.


Now, nearly four months after the end, reports the New York Times about the alleged problems that should have had the project from the beginning.


It is not so much to the TouchPad or the Pre smartphone also set 3 and Veer, but rather the software-based. Because according to some former Palm and HP employees, the problem lay in webOS, the platform is well founded.


According to Paul Mercer, formerly in charge of Palm software development, we have seen during the development of webOS too little on what is technically feasible, "Palm was ahead of its time, as people have tried a smartphone platform based on Web technologies to create and we were not able to implement such an ambitious and groundbreaking design.


He continued:"Perhaps it's also not feasible because the technology was not available.".In his opinion it was a mistake, the operating system on the WebKit engine build. The use of multiple Web-based browser had been too slow for applications that have yet to be decided for them. Especially in comparison to the iPhone, the differences would have been clear.





Another, called name unspecified former entrusted with the project, however, represents a different view. Accordingly, we have never managed to create a real attractive platform. Thus the interest of independent developers from the beginning was small - a problem that HP eventually led to, for the pay porting of known apps .


During the development we have made fundamental errors that programmers would have made it unnecessarily difficult. Thus one has, because of time constraints - webOS was developed entirely within nine months - disregarded important fundamentals. Instead of a unified framework to develop reusable with "blocks" for building applications, we've started from scratch with each program.


Although we have developed later on and after such 'blocks', but will be taken over by HP and the related changes had taken large parts again from the start in attack. So developers had to relearn how to build webOS applications.


But the personnel policy was in large part been wrong, then the unknown source. There have simply been too few suitable programmer, since both Apple and Google have already set at an earlier stage in the grand style. But also in management, it is said to have given wrong person, including in the form of Jon Rubinstein.


Formerly with Apple, among other things responsible for the development of the iPod research and development manager at Palm would be too much for the hard and cared too little about the software. The acquisition by HP in April 2010 was in terms of personnel then have been the death blow. At that time, many key staff have left the project, including those for "Human Interface and User Experience" competent Matias Duarte.Which was by his move to Google resulting gap was never closed.


All these problems would then ultimately led to it had come much after the iPad on the market.Apple's competing product is also much faster to an almost identical price was. The end of seven weeks but still had been a shock.