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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

#61

Post by pooriaazimi »

j_col wrote: post #26
modeless wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now patents might be a good reason to buy Palm, but that's completely separate from the fate of WebOS. Amazon could take the patents and throw WebOS away.

> Amazon could take the patents and throw WebOS away. ...along with at least 1 million webOS users? Who are currently buying software from the webOS store, and are likely to buy future webOS hardware from Amazon (or whoever else how makes it)? Really?

There's no market for TouchPad software. Those customers just bought TouchPads because they were cheap, not because they want to use them regularly (like iPad and probably Kindle Fire). If TouchPad wasn't $99, they couldn't even sell 25,000 of them. They sold 1M by losing money and going out of business, not by creating an ecosystem which can 'trap' customers (and make them buy their future products just because their apps and music works only on that device) like what Apple and Amazon do.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#62

Post by zitterbewegung »

j_col wrote: post #15

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?

I don't think they will make phones or even continue webOS. I have a feeling that this is a talent acquisition and they will use it to improve the Kindle Fire.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#63

Post by j_col »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #61
j_col wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon could take the patents and throw WebOS away. ...along with at least 1 million webOS users? Who are currently buying software from the webOS store, and are likely to buy future webOS hardware from Amazon (or whoever else how makes it)? Really?

There's no market for TouchPad software. Those customers just bought TouchPads because they were cheap, not because they want to use them regularly (like iPad and probably Kindle Fire). If TouchPad wasn't $99, they couldn't even sell 25,000 of them. They sold 1M by losing money and going out of business, not by creating an ecosystem which can 'trap' customers (and make them buy their future products just because thei…

> There's no market for TouchPad software.

Tell that to this guy: http://twitter.com/#!/PalmFlashCards/status/1147168660978442...

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#64

Post by j_col »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #62
j_col wrote: post #15

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?

I don't think they will make phones or even continue webOS. I have a feeling that this is a talent acquisition and they will use it to improve the Kindle Fire.

Considering they already fired all of the hardware people, most of the talent have already gone (unless you mean't software, and it that case webOS is a pretty different system to Android, so it's not like Amazon would be picking up a few hundred Android developers here).

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#65

Post by firefoxman1 »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #61
j_col wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon could take the patents and throw WebOS away. ...along with at least 1 million webOS users? Who are currently buying software from the webOS store, and are likely to buy future webOS hardware from Amazon (or whoever else how makes it)? Really?

There's no market for TouchPad software. Those customers just bought TouchPads because they were cheap, not because they want to use them regularly (like iPad and probably Kindle Fire). If TouchPad wasn't $99, they couldn't even sell 25,000 of them. They sold 1M by losing money and going out of business, not by creating an ecosystem which can 'trap' customers (and make them buy their future products just because thei…

Actually, I had just been waiting for the price to come down, but I am going to use my Touchpad for just about everything but development. I love WebOS, and I'm not saying there are many of us, but WebOS fans are pretty devoted. Kind of like Apple fanboys back in the day.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#66

Post by firefoxman1 »

j_col wrote: post #64
zitterbewegung wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they will make phones or even continue webOS. I have a feeling that this is a talent acquisition and they will use it to improve the Kindle Fire.

Considering they already fired all of the hardware people, most of the talent have already gone (unless you mean't software, and it that case webOS is a pretty different system to Android, so it's not like Amazon would be picking up a few hundred Android developers here).

Well most of Palm's hardware in recent years sucked anyway. WebOS is where the talent went in. Even if it was a talent acquisition, I think WebOS has a better chance of at least being open-sourced if it's owned by Amazon than if it was stuck with HP.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#67

Post by technoslut »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #62
j_col wrote: post #15

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?

I don't think they will make phones or even continue webOS. I have a feeling that this is a talent acquisition and they will use it to improve the Kindle Fire.

They will undoubtedly make phones. Why give away a market to competitors that is worth billions? Amazon wants to keep users in their ecosystem. To do that you need a phone as well, which they're essentially already doing in their AppStore.

Within three years Amazon will come out with their own phone. It will be the same game plan that they used with the Fire and gear it towards the low end. Eventually they will go towards the high end.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#68

Post by Charmander »

j_col wrote: post #15

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?

Amazon will make iPod Touch like devices before they make phones (although the Kindle Fire already falls into that market segment due its price point).

This proposed webOS purchase is to hedge their bets against Google keeping ICS and future versions closed source. Amazon can't out a 10" Kindle tablet with the underlying system based on Gingerbread. The Amazon services could be provided but there would be no apps and games made for it.

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#69

Post by ConstantineXVI »

coob wrote: post #59
jkap wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still very clear what you're getting with each Kindle product. Kindle DX has a massive screen, Kindle Keyboard has a keyboard, Kindle Touch has a touch screen, Kindle has buttons, Kindle Fire is a tablet. And then there's the 3G and Wi-Fi splits, but that's also an obvious feature.

…try explaining this to my mother.

* Cheap Kindle (sans touch)

* Kindle (touch)

* Kindle that doesn't need wifi (touch 3G)

* Old Kindle that they need to sell off (w/ keyboard)

* Kindle w/ video + web + games (Fire)

Re: Amazon in talks with HP to buy Palm

#70

Post by w33ble »

technoslut wrote: post #67
zitterbewegung wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they will make phones or even continue webOS. I have a feeling that this is a talent acquisition and they will use it to improve the Kindle Fire.

They will undoubtedly make phones. Why give away a market to competitors that is worth billions? Amazon wants to keep users in their ecosystem. To do that you need a phone as well, which they're essentially already doing in their AppStore. Within three years Amazon will come out with their own phone. It will be the same game plan that they used with the Fire and gear it towards the low end. Eventually they will go to…

The Fire makes sense, it's a media portal that plugs directly in to Amazon's forte; books, and more recently, apps and streaming video. It's not a tablet though, and Bezos readily, and correctly, admits that. What exactly would they gain by making a phone? Sure they would stand to sell more apps, but I think Amazon is most interesting in selling books and being a player in the streaming media game. The cell phone, with its small screen, isn't well-suited for those. Not to mention that their apps are Android apps, something I wouldn't think Palm would make a great resource for. If they are buying Palm for hardware and cell phone experience, I'd think there would be a cheaper way to get those somewhere else.

Phones don't make sense in Amazon's model at all to me. Of course, I could be wrong, but unless it's driving sales of Amazon products, like the Kindle does, there's no incentive.

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