InformationWeek: Palm Smartphone Platform Gets New Life With HP Take-over – Maybe
HP and Palm are both casualties of the smartphone wars, with HP gone and Palm on life support in recent months. Can they join forces to revive Palm’s promising WebOS smartphone operating system?
“HP turned the smartphone space on its head Wednesday with its surprise purchase of Palm. At first blush, the deal would appear to help both companies, but it is far from a sure bet to save Palm’s line of webOS devices.
This news is the result of a large number of bad decisions and miscalculations on both HP and Palm’s parts. Before today, HP had no legitimate play in the vital smartphone space, and Palm’s good software was dying a slow death in bad hardware. Both companies needed a fix, and HP’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm looks to be the salvation each firm so desperately needs.”
