Dear webOS Developer,
We have opened the next chapter for webOS, and we understand that you must have many questions. Yesterday we announced that we will focus on the future of webOS as a software platform but we will no longer be producing webOS devices. While this was a difficult decision, it’s one that will strengthen our ability to focus on further innovating with webOS as we forge our path forward. Throughout this journey, our developers will continue to be a vital part of the future of webOS.
We will continue to support, innovate and develop the webOS App Catalog. Our intent is to enhance our merchandising and presentation of your great products and to continue to build our webOS app ecosystem.
As many of you are aware, we are currently scheduled to hold many developer events around the world. We are planning to continue with these events, however, due to the recent announcements; the nature of them will change. These updates will be posted on our events registration site this coming week. We are eager to present to you the updated strategy for webOS and to hear your feedback.
Lastly, I wish to express our sincere appreciation for your ongoing support for webOS and the many teams responsible for it here at HP. This is a particularly dynamic time in the mobile industry and sometimes tough decisions need to be made about not only what to do, but also what not to do. This has been one of those times. Together with our great webOS developer community, we are confident that we will meet the challenges ahead and build momentum for optimal success.
We will be communicating with you frequently over the next few weeks and we look forward to hearing from you throughout this process.
Thanks for your support
Richard Kerris
VP webOS Developer Relations
Yeah, this is really not the way to reassure developers and partners alike.
So, Palm, who’s going to make webOS devices now? Where is it going to actually run? What are your actual plans? Why are you keeping webOS alive? Why should I develop for webOS? These are some of the questions you should address. You must have some sort of strategy in place, this is the time to clearly state it.
I’m also a little underwhelmed now that the existing products have been canceled. The TP is being pulled from shelves (even though it’s already produced and distributed), the Veer is being pulled, and the Pre3 is just never gonna happen.
With no HP products and no 3rd party products there’s literally nothing planned by anybody in the world that will use webOS.
“We have opened the next chapter for webOS…” Too bad you also ensured all the pages in that chapter will be blank.
Actually as a long fan of palm I think it would be a shame to not let web os have a second chance. If you look at how many times palm was bought and sold and reinvented this just adds to their colorful history. Hopefully the innovative leaders of this defunct company can revive it as web os has much to offer.
Jon lied to us. Leo lied to us. How do you expect us to believe you?
As a loyal palm user for many, many years I think that you will see a strong surge in the Palm community to indicate our enthusiasm and loyalty to a great webos operating system that we will not let die. I think we are very united in wanting to see a new home for the hardware that will incorporate this operating system. As a loyal Saab owner, I can only say that the company was saved when business interest saw the commitment of past owners who did not want to see our brand die. I hope that HP will reconsider their decision, but if not, we Palm loyalist want you to know that there will continue to be a market for these products, i.e. smartphones, tablets, and perhaps laptop operating system with another quality hardware organization.
I work with people with developmental disabilities and I purchased a iPad to try out with the students I work with. The cause and effect music (piano) program is wonderful as is the coloring book and the web access. Even a simple touch the picture and it says what I may want or need is a wonderful app. Many of the students I work with lack the communication skills to express basic needs or wants. We use color pictures and photographs but they lack the interaction and adaptability of a computer. There are some wonderful PC applications like Pvoice that are open source that allow us to try out different communication layouts for students but buying a touch activated communication system can cost thousands of dollars.
But simple applications based on something like PowerPoint type presentation would really make a difference, in cooking, self care skills etc. I know that the students I have used my iPad with have fully enjoyed it, for some it is the first time they have interacted with any type of adaptive equipment. I would love to try the tablet with some of those I work with I am actually trying to purchase a few of these tablets to try with the students I work with. I hope this works out for those that work on this situation, I know there are real people involved customers that have purchased the item and fine employees and developers who have given a great deal of time to this project. I know tablets are very useful to the people I work with even if they just have web access.
As HP seems having a big fund to buy other companies (buying Autonomy with 10,000 millions USD), I would suggest for HP to allocate 2 millions every year for 10 years = 20 millions USD i.e less than 1/500 fraction of Autonomy’s price to have “WEBOS DEVELOPER CHALLENGE” every year for 10 YEARS with much more attractive prize as Android code challenge.
This would prove HP seriousness of WebOS, at the same time would attract many developers to develop more and more applications.
And hopefully HP will take back their words in killing the device at soonest once they’re realizing the enthusiasm of WebOS developer — hmm , I thought they do ! :O
Please have voting on this.
Having been involved with webOS & previously Palm, I have long been ‘committed to concept’ – not the Brand/Name. As such, I agree with Richard in their closing statement of “meeting challenges ahead” and “building momentum for optimal success”. webOS appears to have already proved itself by each update (currently 3.0.2). I suggest to some of the current users of various (HP) webOS products to separate Concept from Trademark. I had spent time in Architecture, which highlighted earlier changes in both Apple & Graphisoft – see where they are now! (each stuck with Concepts)
With hindsight I’m really glad I didn’t invest time and money into this platform and stuck it out with Apple and Microsoft devices regards mobile development. Incredible recent turn of events to say the least!
“…we are confident that we will meet the challenges ahead and build momentum for optimal success.” C’mon… who do you think you’re kidding? Bill and Dave are rolling in their graves right now. They would never have written this kind of corpo-babel. A more honest statement would have been: “We’re keeping the lights on until we see if we can sell off WebOS or get enough license revenue to keep it alive. If we can’t, we’ll pull the plug on WebOS as well.”
It took courage to kill a loser. It takes the opposite of courage to tell your developers that you are “confident” and you will “build momentum”. Sad.
Who knows,might Palm once again be spun off into it own company?
Can I have a touchpad please?
I would LOVE to see the Touchpad have the ability to Tri-Book webOS, ubuntu, and Android.
That would make this little tablet a versatile and incredibly functional peice of electronic goodness.
Look forward to seeing where you take the software on this one.
You guys are forgetting the new touchpad firesale… That’s nearly almost 1 million or so new tablet owners going to be hungry for new apps. Or the fact that HP is keeping WebOS for now.
They may license it out to someone else. You never know. Besides, it’s ten times better than what’s out there. What if Apple decides to buy WebOS?
The situation is cristal clear… for 6 months the devs spent time and money on the plataform and on devices, the return is now everyone but the developers get the device by 99$.
please…set free the market, why in the rest of Europe we cannot buy some NECESSARY apps, like the one to tether 3g connection? this is crazyness, is not Sparta…
Game Over…
Why not let Palm OS become the gold standard for Web Development. Your tools are almost there anyways. Provide a web app structure that automatically grows / shrinks to screen size for desktop and mobile usage. Make HTML5 features like Local Storage, animations, video playing seamless. Lastly, make it easy for developers to integrate in-app purchases for their web apps. Letting devs monitize web apps would be a huge step forward and push forward app to web transition.
“The nature of these events will change”… i.e. moved to the nearest Starbucks. Seriously, who invests in something publicly orphaned?
It sounds more like a captain pulling the plug in his ship and claiming “we won’t” sink while the water is flooding in.
Big announces were made in March, but besides the veer silently coming in the dark nothing really happens.
A OS doesn’t make sense to me if there is no new hardware it runs on. Why should I develop for webos when there is rather no chance to sell my software to anybody?
Why does HP claim to straighten their efforts in the cloud when there are no devices for this “always online” world?
In March I thought, that hp will push the webos ecosystem to real blazing live. Now hp is whining about loosing in the PC sector and closes down their own future market in a mobile world. I don’t understand this, sorry…..
Keep in mind the current fire sell at $99 per tablet are being sold faster than they can be shipped to stores. At least one million new WebOS tablets will go on-line within the next few days. Best Buy s nearly a half a million in their where houses and the stores are selling them as fast as they arrive. It’s a WebOS black Thursday.
With a million+ new WebOS users next week, and a limited number of apps currently available, there will be the potential for huge profits. At least for the developers who have, or can get, apps ported in the next few weeks.
I really do want to start developing for WebOS, but the only device I have is an old Palm Pre from Sprint. I’ve been waiting for another WebOS device to make it to Sprint before upgrading. And now — how can I start developing anything for WebOS when I can’t get a device that will run the latest WebOS?
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.
As a developer and early adopter of Palm technologies (I am a proud owner of the Palm Pilot Professional as well as the Palm V, before Palm was bought up by US Robotics, and later by 3Com), I am saddened by the news that the WebOS devices will be discontinued. I don’t mean to criticize anyone, but it seems that the decision was premature, and HP could have made more efforts to involve developers and consumers in an effort to save this platform. I actually had some ideas that I would have wanted to raise, but I was surprised by the sudden decision to discontinue the product line altogether.
I see reports according to which HP will discontinue the development of WebOS hardware, but will continue to support and even expand its WebOS software infrastructure. I am wondering how you intend to provide developers with a platform to test and enjoy their own software, if you are discontinuing your product line.
It would appear the sane thing to do, to first and foremost provide developers with your hardware at a discounted price, if you wish to continue offering a software infrastructure. After all, developers need a hardware platform to develop against. According to some reports, there will be more devices available this week. Please be sure to make such devices first and foremost available to developers, in order to ensure that developers have the possibility of not only developing software, but also testing their software both on the touchpad as well as WebOS phone technology.
Thank you.
Yes, at this stage, why bother? What’s the incentive? You’ve lost faith in your product and you thank us for ours? That does not pay the bills, does not create a secure platform or instill any confidence in the platform. You dropped us and now we have no reason not to drop you.
Once you give us a concrete reason other than someday your apps might be usefull somewhere, you might be able to hold onto the last developer – you know, the one that didn’t get the memo.
Egal ob man zufrieden oder unglücklich mit der Entscheidung von HP ist keine Hardware zu bauen:
Selten sieht man ein derart überstürtzes und unprofessionelles Handeln wie die letzten Tage bei HP – ehemalige Nummer 1.
Da wird einem wieder die hohe Professionalität von Apple klar.
Wahrscheinlich schämen sich ganz viele für dieVorgaben von oben. Die aber schämen sich nicht, denn die ‘machen’ Karriere bzw. Erfolg.
Verlass aber ist auf HP nicht mehr. Ihr wechselt eure Meinung mit völliger Inbrunst mittlerweile Stundenweise. Und wie lange war euer Shop gestern ‘maximal’ verfügbar?
Gar nicht – das ist nicht nur peinlich, sondern wieder einmal entschieden unprofessionell.
Vielleicht solltet ihr nicht für fremde Entwickler Veranstaltungen abhalten, sondern für eure eigenen Mitarbeiter, damit ihr wieder auf eine gemeinsame Spur kommt.
Schämt euch.
Release the source code and open source it. Allow developers to poke and prod it and make it even better.
Now in US, UK and Germany people can buy TouchPad for $99 (!) in many stores but what with developers outside this countries??? Where we can buy devices in the same price? If you want “continue to support, innovate and develop the webOS App Catalog” for first you should offer devices for developers!
Dear Richard,
I’m signed up to the webOS Developer mailing list. I received this message about “the next chapter” of webOS and about supporting people like me who showed faith in the platform.
Two or three days after that email, the Touchpad goes on sale and sells out everywhere. No warning to us, no stock ring-fenced for developers, or people like me who were intending to become developers. Oh, great… thanks HP!
If there is more stock, how about a little preferential treatment here? A small something to back up this “next chapter” and promise of support?
Thanks,
Chris
Apart from nice words, is there anything you could offer to at least show us, you’re not kidding? There were at least some people out here, who relied on HP and I’m not sure that I want to do that again, neither in private, nor in business.
In our company there are at least three EVAs waiting to be replaced within the next 6 Months. And since my Boss and I are equally pissed about how HP treats their customers, I’m quite unsure, if there would be shiny HP logos on the replacement SANs.
So – again – apart from nice words, what do you have to offer?
I was quite excited when webOS first appeared on the scene, but was disappointed that it was yet another seperate technology to learn. Javascript, C, and C++ looked like disappointing tools compared to my love of .NET.
Regardless of what the intentions behind the unleashing of the Touchpad sales avalanche were, the facts “on the ground” appear from a developer’s perspective to be such, that HP has succeeded in turning the WebOS into a veritable platform, by creating a viable WebOS App market. The timing was perfect. Given that the Touchpad was highly underestimated, and with the rumored Amazon Android Tablet around the corner, to be followed by the iPad 3, there was not much space left to make any Touchpad sales. Granted, HP is losing money over these sales, but clearly only a fraction of the more than $1,000,000,000 spent on acquiring the WebOS technology to begin with. A few hundred million dollars spent on an effort to retain a $1bio investment seems quite reasonable, if you have that kind of money.
Now that the market is conceivably there, we need some encouraging signs from the WebOS people that this platform indeed has a future. Such a sign could be a roadmap telling us where you see the future of WebOS, in terms of features and envisioned release dates. It will give us developers a sign that WebOS is a platform that is here to stay. Needless to say, a this junction this would be a much needed sign!
Why would anyone want to develop for WebOS now? I just started LEARNING how to program BECAUSE of WebOS. Now the platform that I want to code my awesome ideas for is pretty much dead? You guys gave up too soon. Apparently whoever is in charge of this cant see WebOS and the obsolete devices for the potential it HAD. I dont see it going anywhere else. Jon Rubinstein had the right idea. It just sucks that he didn’t have a closer start to the game that Apple and Google had. Jon – you’re an inspiration. Mr. Buy WebOS and give up not even a year after acquisition? You’re a let down.
Without any more devices, what’s HP’s plan about WebOS? Sellling it or authorizing it to other device manufacturers？
That whole thing is a PR-nightmare!
What did the executives at HP think when announcing all this things without a proper PR campaign? Business-wise the decisions might have been all quite reasonable but with how they where executed was a disaster.
Why launching the hardware at such a high price in the first place? Why not just reducing the price for like $150 to $200 and watch the devices getting sold without dumping them and giving everybody the feeling, that WebOS is worth next to nothing?
The overwhelming demand due to the Fire Sale is good for WebOS and developers might jump back on the train since there are so many devices in the wild now. But you never showed them why that would be the right choice. The only thing people have in mind now is, that WebOS is dead whereas you only canceled the hardware for it.
Then there are the rumors which add to the confusion. Will HP definitely continue WebOS support or will HP drop it, like it dropped the hardware? It’s time for a commitment here, guys. Slap Leo on the back of his head and tell him, that he has to communicate how the future of WebOS at HP will look like or the whole eco system will die before it was even grown up. This really unprecedented PR nightmare is ruining HP’s credibility and will have a lasting effect on sales.
Considering that the cell phone market would have been the largest market for WebOS, dropping the Pre 3 prior to even releasing it in the USA killed the bulk of potential profits for developers. If the product was ready to go and already shipped in Europe, that wouldn’t have been DEVELOPMENT, it would have been releasing a product that would act as a platform for software development and sales. HP made a huge mistake, and their stock price shows I am not the only one who feels that way.
Well, concentrating on WebOS and droping the hardware may be good (if someone who knows how to build good hardware is licensing WebOS), but honestly I don’t believe in it. Apple has it’s own crap, Nokia will stick to Windows und everyone else hops onto the Android train… Please, before you die, release WebOS as Open Source so WebOS Internals can continue the software. Maybe I’ll buy some nice HTC gear or a current iPhone and use WebOS on it.
This isn’t a clear response. Tell me why I have to develop for WebOs?
It is really sad for many of us look how HP is handling this situation.
How can you tell if a VP is lying? His lips are moving… I asked Richard for a firm decision on something small, and, so far, no response. C’mon guys, it’s over.
What platform is everybody going to move to? Microsoft says it’s to them, but it sounds a bit self-serving. Android is my best thinking, but it’s not really as open as I would have hoped.
Anyone who’s made a firm decision care to share the what’s why’s and wherefore’s?
Thanks!
-sad to see this happen to webos it is a great Os hope it lives on
Might as well develop for PalmOS 6.
Actually WinPhone might not be that bad an idea: in iOS and Androidland there are too many apps to be noticed among, WP7 is still sparsely populated.
At least you should publish WebOS as OpenSource. Otherwise no developer will believe that you will not drop it or sell it to anyone..
Why would any developer stay with webOS when there is no hardware for consumers to purchase?.
The one time HP do something right they just screw it up again.
Please reverse your decision HP or get rid of your CEO who has rocks in his head.
As WebOs Dev its really amazing os i like it much then Android & iOs.
I will pray for webos
It should be my fault! I loved Palm…. Pre wasn’t available so I got N900…. and meamo was discontinued! now I was thinking of a touchpad!!! and that’s to be discontinued!!!! it should be my fault! in which case… I’ll pick up an iPhoney with the hopes that it discontinues!
I’m not a developer.
I keep considering myself a Palm (yes, PALM) user.
I started in ’98 and I was lately obliged to switch to Android, to keep doing what I was doing with my beloved PDA.
I still hope that one day, after WebOS will include its ancestors sync functionality, and a third party will build a nice piece of hardware as a Pre, I can go back to this OS which everybody says it’s the best of the world (…and I believe it).
Good luck to all.
I was hoping to hear webOS was being purchased by another company who can see the huge potential in the Os and gets excited about new stuff. I’m excited about the apps on my touch pad. I love it!
the more and more i utilize my touchpad, the more and more i fall in love with webOS. i wish they wouldn’t discontinue the hardware, but, at the very least i hope they do continue to support and develop this wonderful os. i understand that there isn’t a huge push in the mobile community to run out and grab the veer… it is ridiculously small and not very practical. the touchpad, however, is an amazing machine and, in my opinion, is the closest competition to the iPad. those tiny little android “tabs” are hardly even a joke of a tablet. i’ve been using my touchpad as a kindle, news source, twitter, Facebook, email, calendar, and most important to my job, an organizer. it has really exceeded my expectations of what i thought this tablet was going to be. i use the palm pixi currently and just wasn’t impressed overall, (which is why i feel consumers didn’t want to give the touchpad a chance) and, which is why i was apprehensive to purchase it. even at $150. knowing what i know now, i would gladly have spent $400+ on it!!!