1–10 of 61 posts
How Dead is WebOS?
kiwiluv.com
Mine too, few months ago I ran into some tutorials on getting started on developing for webOS on Mobiletuts+ and installed the webOS image for VirtualBox, and my impressions of webOS were positive. Since then a new version of webOS was released, I can only imagine that it's even better.
The software was pretty great. The multitasking was perfect, Synergy was awesome. It wasn't quite as polished in some areas as iOS, but some things were also drastically superior. Also the inductive charging was awesome as well.
I got an iPhone on Verizon when it came out, and I really miss the multitasking. But what I don't miss is the hardware.
My Pre was literally starting to fall apart. It was all cheap, flimsy plastic, not durable at all. The difference in build quality of the iPhone was astonishing. And dramatic noticeable speed improvement.
WebOS was crippled by its horrible hardware. The software was competitive, even the best at times, but the Pre was just terrible hardware. It didn't have very fast specs, and the phone itself wasn't durable or high quality.
I think its all fine and dandy that they have semi-rewarded me with some free advertising, but as a developer, I really only care about writing a killer app and if there is no way to do certain things, or making me write a C++ browser extension just to properly cURL data, well its just not worth my time.
Being able to phonegap applications will help their count, but most developers know, those apps never feel purely native and the apps typically are extremely low powered, unintelligent apps.
I think that accounting for all that might be more of a recipe for disaster. Poor usability and a lack of strong apps, except for the occasional game (written in C++ as a browser plugin so they can opengl).
Likewise in the phone segment, the third place slot is far from wrapped up. MeeGo was DOA and Windows Phone 7 isn't exactly lighting the sales charts on fire.
Solid execution from HP over the next 6 months could really ignite the webOS platform.
Some things about WebOS are absolutely fantastic. My first smartphone was a Pre Plus when it came out on Verizon for like $40. The software was pretty great. The multitasking was perfect, Synergy was awesome. It wasn't quite as polished in some areas as iOS, but some things were also drastically superior. Also the inductive charging was awesome as well. I got an iPhone on Verizon when it came out, and I really miss t…
webOS 1.0 did do a lot of wacky/strange things that were annoying, though not bad enough for the phone to be useless. As well as the hardware problems, you'd get stuff like like the alarm going off a minute before it was supposed to (going by the phone's own time display). It would also repeatedly tell you every few minutes that it was unable to send an email message when no network was available.
They're reduced the number of annoyances in webOS 2.0, though, so I am hopeful for the Pre 3. (It also now has close to acceptable performance, instead of completely unacceptable performance.)
The marketing and app problems are much more difficult to solve; I'm not sure what they can do there. Throwing money at it, maybe...
Anyone who takes an objective look at iOS vs. Android vs. webOS will see that webOS is the technologically superior platform. The UI is fantastic and smooth and many of other current mobile platforms are starting to "borrow" from it. The playbook, android and even iOS to a certain extent. If HP markets the hardware and software correctly and they do a good job of attracting quality developers it will be a force.
The question is, will the other mobile platforms borrow from it fast enough to make it totally irrelevant.
Instead, I haven't touched the iPhone for eight weeks. WebOS is a delight, and I wish I'd had the guts to try it sooner; not only is the OS better thought out in many ways (multi tasking, global app menus, discreet notifications, OTA system updates, polished app switching, 'just type' launcher, the gesture area, and more) but the Enyo development kit has been easy to pick up, and hardware touches -- like the Touchstone charging dock -- make the device a joy to live with.
I'm currently porting an iOS app to WebOS, and will be launching future apps on both platforms, even though the WebOS userbase falls short of iOS and Android's reach. In short, I feel really positive about WebOS, and hope HP's acquisition of Palm will be the kick it needs to find the success it deserves.