I am here live in the Uplinq Conference of Qualcomm and HP's Jon Rubinstein has just said something interesting in the keynote in the morning: HP would be willing to work with "special business" to deliver webOS on non-HP devices.
When HP bought Palm year last for more than 1 billion, many (including yours truly) thought that it would take the approach of Apple provide the hardware and software. With webOS, she had bought a stellar operating system just need some love and mountains of resources. HP has the resources and the Veer, 3 pre and TouchPad are its first uses of this platform.
Rubinstein, who is now a senior VP at HP, said that he would be willing to work with "special companies" to deliver webOS on other products. He wants to be somewhere between the model of Apple and Google approach (where he gave Android for all comers). To be clear, he said that HP does not want to be in the business licence, these partners would add great value and focus on growing webOS.
So, what kind of business is eligible as a "special"? Rubinstein said that this means the manufacturer of the device (or manufacturer of Tablet, I guess) should not have a large portfolio of devices based on other platforms or, at least, be prepared to make its main operating system webOS. I imagine that which excludes an Apple, Nokia (with Windows phone) and Research In Motion. Samsung, LG, HTC and Motorola also appear pretty darn resolved to Android.
The idea of webOS on other devices is very interesting because I am crazy HP how large is, it will be very difficult for a single undertaking to create sufficient application of the ecosystem of webOS. I'm just struggling to understand what companies would fall into this "special" category and would be willing to ditch Windows Phone 7 to webOS or Android. If I'm dreaming, I would like to see some HTC devices with this software but don't know which is realistic.
What do you think friends?
