WebOS returns as an enterprise platform

While HP has pulled out of the smartphone/tablet business, the company still has plans for its WebOS operating system. According to statements from the company today, HP plans to turn webOS into an “enterprise development platform”. Speaking at the InformationWeek 500 conference today, Chairman of the Board Ray Lane was quoted as saying:

“You cannot develop serious portable applications on Android. Android is a great operations environment for a smart device, but if you want to develop a serious commercial application …They want to build on WebOS because they can port it to anything. You can’t do that with Android or iOS…That’s the reason we keep that with HP. We see that as a viable, commercial web development platform.”

So if you wonder what webOS would become, here’s the answer. Frankly, making the claim that one can’t develop “serious” business applications with Android seem pretty bold, and we’re looking forward to Google’s answer.

If you’re probably wondering what hardware WebOS will run on, Ray Lane provides yet another insight: “I believe there are better competitors than us to produce the devices.” He also confirmed that HP is currently in discussions with potential partners to produce webOS devices.

The platform isn’t going to die after all, although it’s true that HP never said it would. What are your thoughts about the return of webOS? Do you really believe that Android can’t be just as good for enterprise apps?

George Wong
Categories: Computers, Tablets
Tags: enterprise, HP, webos