Many people declared Palm dead when HP rebranded Palm.com with HP logos and slapped HP on the latest webOS devices.  Palm wasn’t dead then.  It was alive in the design of the Veer and Pre3.  With HP’s latest moves (if you haven’t heard, you live under one odd rock), Palm is truly finally dead.  

HP’s announcement today declared that they have given up on webOS devices but has left it open ended that we might expect licensing options or a sell off.  Regardless of what happens, it won’t be Palm designed the phones anymore.  It’ll be HTC or Samsung or Amazon for all we know.  Palm’s last stand has ended.  Palm is dead.

This truly makes me sad.  I’ve held my Pre tight.  I check it religiously for  webOSroundup updates, hoping in vain that today would be the day that HP moves forward and announces its releasing the Pre3 to all US carriers and a new model will be out in three months.  Alas, not.  Instead, I received the jolting news today that HP is cutting loose its PC division (which I was a big fan of their systems, especially the Voodoo/Envy line) and along with it webOS devices.

I’ve read a lot of comments from the blogs tonight.  There’s pleas to save webOS.  Maybe HTC will take it?  And there’s equally strong pleas for webOS to die.  No more chances, just lay back and sleep webOS.  

How do I feel about it all?  Disappointed.  Frustrated.  Let down.

I bought my Palm Pre Plus under the premise that Palm would release updates and newer phones.  They were snatched up by HP and I was thrilled.  I thought they might take a while to get started but when they revealed the new phones, I was excited.  I thought webOS would take at least 10-20% market share within a year or so.  Instead, HP let everyone down.  They released the tiny Veer and only finally did a soft launch on the Pre3 unlocked in Europe.  HP really had the potential to release it and make it something amazing. 

Before I criticize too much, I must confess that I was defecting anyway.  See, my wife wants an iPhone.  I wanted to try her Droid 2 Global.  I was really thinking the spare phone would let me install webOS 2 on my Pre without fear of being phone-less.  The idea of keeping the Droid was growing on me though.  There’s so many apps.  I’m a power user and lately all I’ve done is check the news.  Android would let me organize and sort and do all sorts of things that apps let you do.  I’m still looking forward to my time with the Droid  

I want to also admit that I really didn’t care about going to Android.  I want open source and customizable.  I run Linux, alright?  I don’t want closed controlled iOS.  Android is closed enough with all the trouble it takes to load different ROMs.  webOS never had that problem.  Developer mode was built in and accessible. 

So now I’m looking at the future.  If a manufacturer can take webOS and run with it, I’ll be back.  If not, I’m not sure what I’ll run.  Perhaps a Googlorola Android phone?  Maybe a closed source Windows Phone or Blackberry QNX handset?  Maybe open Meego will come back?  Or I’ll drink the koolaid and get an iPhone?
 


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