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HP: We know we said we’d support Windows Phone 7, but that was before we bought Palm

Categories: HP, webOS
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 12:43 AM

HP, who in February said they’d support Microsoft and their Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, but then went ahead and purchased Palm in April for $1.2 billion, has recently said that they’re going to stick to webOS, and only webOS, for their smartphones going forward.

Not that HP ever made any good smartphones to begin with. Compaq was the company who made interesting personal digital assistants, with specifications such as built in WiFi and a 640 x 480 screen in the iPaq hx4700 which was released in 2004. HP bought Compaq, took the brand, and basically did nothing with them. HP just wanted to grow, and Compaq’s desktop computer business offered them those precious percentage points of market share to leverage future business contracts.

After HP purchased Palm we at IntoMobile all chimed in with our thought, you can read that piece here, and I just want to repeat what I said back then:

“I’m one of those people who has long memories of Palm. I’ve had several Palm OS devices and during high school, while taking advanced placement courses, I even used a Palm connected to a serial keyboard to take notes. I, along with many other folks, want to see them survive, but I don’t think this deal with Palm will do anything. I hope the future will prove me wrong.”

I still hold the same opinion today. So HP is skipping Windows Phone 7 … who really cares, did you expect them to make something worth your while anyway? When was the last time you saw an iPaq and had gadget lust? More importantly for HP going forward, when was the last time you saw a Palm device and had a burning hole in your wallet?

I bet the answer to both those question isn’t too reassuring for stockholders.

[Via: Mobile Business Briefing]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Jessica W

    Palm's WebOS phones are pretty good. The web browser is WebKit, which is important, as it is pretty well the fastest around. WebOS multitasking is the best out of any smartphone ever built.

    For those 2 reasons alone, I think a HP WebOS machine will give a better experience than a Windows Phone 7 machine.

    WebOS is also more mature than Windows Phone 7. WebOS is relatively bug free and already has the features we want, like Cut-&-Paste. Because of WebOS's maturity, we'll see it on a slate device years before we see Windows Phone 7 on a slate.

    HP is therefore ahead of Microsoft's game, so it's logical it ditched Windows Phone 7. I'm not a WebOS fanatic, my next handset will probably be Android, but I think WebOS is definitely a step ahead of WP7.