webOS News and Speculation

It has been awhile since I last wrote about webOS. Over the last few months the fate of our beloved mobile operating system has been up in the air. On December 9th, we learned that HP will be giving webOS a stay of execution... in the form of making the operating system an open source project. What does that mean exactly? Not entirely sure. The type of licensing HP will pick is still unclear. Android, for example, is an open source project under the Apache License. The Apache License allows companies to make changes to the OS without having to provide code of their changes. This allows these companies to keep their enhancements to themselves, perhaps giving them an edge over other versions of the OS. If HP does pick this license it may draw phone manufacturers, giving them another alternative to using Android.

It is unclear how HP will be able to make money off of this decision. Google itself doesn't make money from Android licensing fees to third parties or app sales. Google makes their money from mobile advertisements in Apps. Could HP create or purchase their own mobile advertisement platform to compete with Google's AdMob or Apple's iAds, or is it too late?

HP has said that they do not plan to build any phones in the future, but plan to develop a new tablet (The TouchPad 2?) in the near future.

About Aaron

Computer Instructor for J. Ryan Solutions, a company which manages computer labs in housing developments throughout the city of Boston, Cambridge, and in the Washington, DC area.