In June I talked about two reasons why HP and Amazon should team-up to drive webOS forward. Now that webOS is an open-source project, I decided to re-think the idea and simply put – I like it even more today.
The two reasons In mentioned in June were:
- Amazon Appstore – there’s no good reason to offer Android apps only
- HP could help Amazon make webOS-based Kindle
While the first reason is still valid, the second one needs rethinking. Perhaps HP could be willing to help Amazon some hardware-based effort, perhaps not. The fact that webOS is now open-source, however, opens new options for the online retailer – they could use an OEM they want without HP being involvement.
HP/Palm’s mobile OS is still pretty solid when compared to other platform and with Amazon committing its resources to make it even better, it may stand a chance in competing with Android, iOS and Windows Phone. Amazon could additionally offer better deals to big handset makers willing to make webOS products, eventually reaching the tipping point in the webOS adoption.
One more thing worth considering – although Kindle Fire runs Android, Amazon has a whole layer of customization running on top and that’s something they should be able to repeat with some webOS-based tablet.
Nevertheless I do agree webOS’ future is pretty blurry at the moment, but I’m also sure that if a company with big footprint in web services like Amazon doesn’t push it forward, no one will. What do you think?