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Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

venturebeat.com

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Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#11

Post by rkalla »

sksultan wrote: post #10
rkalla wrote: post #2

We saw the launch of the Kindle Fire and have seen Amazon's hand with the custom build of Android that looks/feels nothing like Android... anyone have any guesses why they would want WebOS? Amazon already has the Android store, all the Android integration done for the Fire and the Java/Android expertise in house... where does WebOS fit in?

a) HP's probably offering it for pennies. Too good of a deal for any tablet/mobile player. b) Amazon Silk is a game changer that probably has Google fuming. Buying Palm is probably a hedge bet in case Google clamps down. The end-user platform(devise, OS, browser) war between Google, Apple, and MS is to control the user data. Amazon wants to make sure it has an unrestricted piece of that data.

Interesting take on it being a preemptive move. I wouldn't have seen that kind of competitive advantage in owning Palm... again, since it doesn't look to be a talent acquisitions and it isn't for patents (?) then the only thing left is WebOS, in which case what do these guys want with a incompatible clean-room OS?

Google already has too many mobile OS's and Amazon's expertise is elsewhere.

I feel like I'm missing some core component of Palm here that makes it valuable to even still be talked about. Had they had some amazing version of Android with a custom browser and all that, I'd understand this a lot more quickly.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#12

Post by pyrmont »

sksultan wrote: post #10
rkalla wrote: post #2

We saw the launch of the Kindle Fire and have seen Amazon's hand with the custom build of Android that looks/feels nothing like Android... anyone have any guesses why they would want WebOS? Amazon already has the Android store, all the Android integration done for the Fire and the Java/Android expertise in house... where does WebOS fit in?

a) HP's probably offering it for pennies. Too good of a deal for any tablet/mobile player. b) Amazon Silk is a game changer that probably has Google fuming. Buying Palm is probably a hedge bet in case Google clamps down. The end-user platform(devise, OS, browser) war between Google, Apple, and MS is to control the user data. Amazon wants to make sure it has an unrestricted piece of that data.

Amazon is just about to start encouraging people to buy Android applications for the Amazon App Store that presumably wouldn't work on a webOS tablet. If Amazon are in the running, it can only be for the patent portfolio.

If Google were to clamp down on Android, why wouldn't Amazon just continue developing their Android fork? Seems like it would be a lot more effort to get webOS to where they need it to be.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#14

Post by modeless »

What would Amazon do with WebOS when they have already invested so much in Android? Switching would require them to abandon the app store they built. The Silk browser seems at odds with how WebOS works. All their Android UI customizations would have to be rewritten.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#15

Post by j_col »

As a long-suffering webOS fan (Pre- through to Pre3 & Touchpad), all I have to say to this news is, yay! WebOS is a fantastic system that does not deserve to linger and die due to HP's lack of leadership and vision.

Jeff Bezzos, on the other hand, is a true visionary in my opinion and I would be happy to see my webOS HP Profile become an Amazon profile sometime soon.

My only doubt though: will they make phones?

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#16

Post by avree »

modeless wrote: post #14

What would Amazon do with WebOS when they have already invested so much in Android? Switching would require them to abandon the app store they built. The Silk browser seems at odds with how WebOS works. All their Android UI customizations would have to be rewritten.

Amazon has shown that they're open to pivots and trying new things before. I wouldn't be surprised if they made two different lines of Kindles, with different OS's. They are trying to achieve market dominance with the Amazon App Store—with WebOS they could truly achieve market dominance since they'd be the main source of apps.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#17

Post by elithrar »

Apocryphon wrote: post #8

I hope that whomever HP sells Palm off to will bring back the brand.

> I hope that whomever HP sells Palm off to will bring back the brand.

I think the Palm brand is "too far gone" in the public mindset to be worth bringing back. The Amazon brand is a far stronger, far more popular brand and its important that they don't dilute that right as they launch the Fire.

Acquiring Palm, to me, would be so they can acquire patents, some developers and designers, and some tech. WebOS, nice as it is, has missed the train. Amazon would be insane to backflip now (even I wish they'd used WebOS to begin with).

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#18

Post by bradya »

modeless wrote: post #14

What would Amazon do with WebOS when they have already invested so much in Android? Switching would require them to abandon the app store they built. The Silk browser seems at odds with how WebOS works. All their Android UI customizations would have to be rewritten.

Those are all sunk costs (they can't go back in time and change them) - so they are likely evaluating the deal with the long-term future in mind.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#19

Post by j_col »

modeless wrote: post #14

What would Amazon do with WebOS when they have already invested so much in Android? Switching would require them to abandon the app store they built. The Silk browser seems at odds with how WebOS works. All their Android UI customizations would have to be rewritten.

Look at it this way: their are about 1 million Touchpad users already out their due to the HP firesale. That's a nice market to buy, considering these people will want to upgrade to something in 12-18 months time, while keeping their profiles and all of the webOS software they bought (the app market in webOS land is thriving by the way since the massive influx of new users). I think whatever software work they would have to do to make this happen would be worth it to them.

Also remember they would be free of Google and Android, and all of the legal battles happening in that space right now. webOS is so far removed from any of the other platforms out there that there is no danger of being sued by someone for copying them.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#20

Post by mappu »

sksultan wrote: post #10
rkalla wrote: post #2

We saw the launch of the Kindle Fire and have seen Amazon's hand with the custom build of Android that looks/feels nothing like Android... anyone have any guesses why they would want WebOS? Amazon already has the Android store, all the Android integration done for the Fire and the Java/Android expertise in house... where does WebOS fit in?

a) HP's probably offering it for pennies. Too good of a deal for any tablet/mobile player. b) Amazon Silk is a game changer that probably has Google fuming. Buying Palm is probably a hedge bet in case Google clamps down. The end-user platform(devise, OS, browser) war between Google, Apple, and MS is to control the user data. Amazon wants to make sure it has an unrestricted piece of that data.

I don't know if Silk has Google "fuming"..

Opera Mini has been doing the remote-rendering thing for years and years now. It is the most widely used mobile browser, with 113+ million users and 2+ billion daily pageviews.

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