Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

engadget.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 82 posts

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#61

Post by rbanffy »

masklinn wrote: post #60
camiller wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

instead of treating him like a guy who just happened to get lucky eight times (Apple II, Macintosh, Pixar, Macintosh again, iPod, iTMS, iPhone, App Store, iPad)? and what about Taligent, Apple Pippin, 20th Anniversary Macintosh, Motorola ROKR (colaberation with Apple), Macintosh Portable, Apple Lisa, Apple Newton, Apple ///? I'm not saying it's bad, after all the saying is "if your not failing your not trying hard en…

> what about Taligent Apple during Job's exile > Apple Pippin Apple during Job's exile > 20th Anniversary Macintosh Apple during Job's exile > Motorola ROKR (colaberation with Apple) That one yes, though it was not actually Apple's design he did demonstrate it I believe. > Macintosh Portable Apple during Job's exile > Apple Lisa Jobs was forced out of the lisa more than a year before release and went to work on the o…

> but managed to lead to an acquisition and most NeXT people took control position at Apple.

I like to joke that, in reality, Apple was acquired by NeXT for minus 400 million.

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#62

Post by ryanwatkins »

camiller wrote: post #49
mahrain wrote: post #21

The great thing about webOS is that it's all HTML5 and CSS based, even the apps. For their mobile devices they choose to run a Linux kernel on the hardware but in principle it doesn't matter what the kernel is, as long as they have some way to show the apps.

Well, to start off with the initial SDK was just HTML5 and CSS. Later the PDK was released to enable actual native level coding, most of the higher end apps are PDK apps. As a side note, the original iPhone was also all web technology based. It wasn't until a year or so later that a native SDK became available.

I'd say the "higher end game apps" are PDK apps, often because they're just porting existing iOS code. They have no need for the HTML UI.

With OS 2.x there are now options for hybrid apps as well - native code, but HTML UI. And the option to do backend work as node.js based services.

Essentially they've got a great mixed model depending on what you want to build.

All HTML/JS in the app. Or abstract backend services but still code in js (node.js). Or ditch all that and write a native code app with its own custom UI. Or write a native code plugin with HTML UI.

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#63

Post by jdavid »

I think WebOS will be like Steam is on PCs or like the Apple App store is on Mac based computers. In this case the purchasing and updating of apps will be consistent and easy to maintain, however they will still run side by side Photoshop and Games.

WebOS apps will run on WebTops to compete with ChromeTops on the netbook side, but those apps will also run on the desktop.

A key difference between WebTops and WebOS apps and Chrome apps will be the "Touch to Share" feature that will allow you to wirelessly share data between paired devices. This will make it really easy to have a phone, watch, TV, netbook, tablet and PC and share data between them.

I bet you will even be able to configure a home network by using some sort of "Touch to Share" configuration stone.

Only WebOS apps will have this feature and you may need special HP hardware to allow that functionality to work. With 100 million devices using "Touch To Share" next year, I hope we have a click-wheel level UX experiance to Rival Apple.

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#64

Post by patrickaljord »

raganwald wrote: post #33
contextfree wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is kind of cultish. Jobs being successful with a certain approach doesn't mean that it's the only possible successful approach and everyone else should copy it. Not that you can't make an argument for his approach to disclosure, but it'd be better if not couched in hero-worship.

Fair enough, however looking at the industry, the correlation between announcing products a year in advance and actually shipping them is low. I conjecture that if we go out and measure things, we will find that the correlation between announcing products a year in advance and being successful with said products is actually negative .

Correlation does not imply causation.

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#65

Post by SwellJoe »

JoelSutherland wrote: post #30
raganwald wrote: post #12

Ok, I know I need another coffee, so I apologise in advance for being the Grinch here, but... This is pure CEO puffery. When will these guys get it? When will they start looking up to Steve Jobs instead of treating him like a guy who just happened to get lucky eight times (Apple II, Macintosh, Pixar, Macintosh again, iPod, iTMS, iPhone, App Store, iPad)? Steve does not talk about what will ship on every Macintosh nex…

"HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn't have. When HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship." - Leo Apotheker, Jan 27 2011 Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12291529

So, they have a month or two to actually ship, or we'll know it's all PR puffery, including this particular quote.

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#66

Post by ssharp »

raganwald wrote: post #46
contextfree wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Sometimes writing can convey a sense of objectivity which is not really justified. It can be a kind of affectation, which I've been guilty of, and can come off as pretentious or even bullying. My post had a pseudo-objective tone, but it was my personal reaction as well.

I'm very cool with that, and I especially agree that there are many paths to success. IBM was especially famous for pre-announcing things to undermine the competition. Microsoft picked that up as well, and it was an effective business strategy.

A successful tactic for one situation for one company is not guaranteed to transfer.

There was once a time where some people anxiously awaited what was coming next from Microsoft or IBM.

How many people are eagerly awaiting HP's marriage of the PC and WebOS?

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#67

Post by ptomato »

raganwald wrote: post #53
camiller wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

instead of treating him like a guy who just happened to get lucky eight times (Apple II, Macintosh, Pixar, Macintosh again, iPod, iTMS, iPhone, App Store, iPad)? and what about Taligent, Apple Pippin, 20th Anniversary Macintosh, Motorola ROKR (colaberation with Apple), Macintosh Portable, Apple Lisa, Apple Newton, Apple ///? I'm not saying it's bad, after all the saying is "if your not failing your not trying hard en…

I don't think we can hang all of those failures on Steve. Some of them, but not all. By my recollection, Taligent, 20th, Portable, and Newton were all released during his exile (if you want to call Taligent being "released"). I think they were all on Sculley's watch, but I might be mistaken. Lisa was definitely all Jobs, all-singing, all-dancing Jobs. And ROKR... I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it…

I wouldn't really call NeXT a failure, considering OS X.

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#68

Post by jmulho »

ssharp wrote: post #66
raganwald wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very cool with that, and I especially agree that there are many paths to success. IBM was especially famous for pre-announcing things to undermine the competition. Microsoft picked that up as well, and it was an effective business strategy.

A successful tactic for one situation for one company is not guaranteed to transfer. There was once a time where some people anxiously awaited what was coming next from Microsoft or IBM. How many people are eagerly awaiting HP's marriage of the PC and WebOS?

My question, unanswered after reading the link, is this: what is WebOS?

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#69

Post by edw »

JonoW wrote: post #38

Just as Windows on a tablet sucks because it's not optimised for touch, isn't WebOS on a desktop PC going to suck when using a mouse?

Exactly! How is this supposed to jump-start the market for TouchPad apps when a desktop and a tablet involve completely different interaction models?

I remember Tog or another early Mac team member reminiscing about the lack of arrow keys on the original Mac keyboard. They were intentionally left off (so the story goes) to prevent companies from creating shovel-ware ports of their existing applications.

There is value in getting developers to write for a desktop variant of webOS if it gets them downloading the SDK and familiar with the development model, just as the iPad obviously benefitted tremendously from the existing iPhone development infrastructure, but I hope no one thinks that you can simultaneously optimize for both desktop and tablet experiences. (Unless you're the sort of person who says "very unique" or makes multiple things your "top priority.")

Re: WebOS will be on 'every HP PC' shipping next year, says CEO

#70

Post by Hoff »

kilian wrote: post #4

Maybe they can do this for their printers, too... ;)

That might have had a ;) with it, but (if that was supposed to be a joke) you might want to read some of the fodder from last year:

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/05/hp-introducing-...

HP did appear to be (per Mr Hurd's comments back around the time of the Palm acquisition) considering using WebOS in their printers.

Post reply on HN