Me and David were arguing like old times about the state of the industry and we got around to the mobile industry… We talked about mobile operating systems and got around to Firefox OS and Ubuntu. David said remember WebOS, look how that ended…
I reminded him that it was going Opensource, however today David pointed me at this…
Electronics giant HP is selling off the code, staff and technology involved in its WebOS software to Korean firm LG.
HP acquired the WebOS operating system when it bought veteran gadget maker Palm in 2011 for $1.2bn (£789m).
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed but HP is not thought to have recouped much of the money it paid for Palm.
LG said the WebOS code would be used to power its next-generation smart TV technology.
The WebOS was created to run smartphones, tablets and other devices developed by Palm that, in its early days, pioneered the handheld gadget industry. However, Palm’s influence has diminished as Apple, Google’s Android and RIM’s Blackberry have come to dominate the smartphone and tablet markets.
In the deal, LG gets WebOS source code, engineers working on it, documentation and the websites that promote it. HP is holding on to patents underlying WebOS as well as technology that helps it connect to web-based services.
It looks like the deal doesn’t effect the code? maybe? who knows?
So much for going Opensource?, I had thought it was going to be like the BeOS of the mobile operating systems.
