Amazon may acquire remnants of Palm and webOS from HP

By on Sep 30, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Business September 30, 2011

Amazon is reportedly a front runner among multiple companies currently in talks with Hewlett-Packard to purchase its struggling webOS business. VentureBeat cites an anonymous “well-placed source” in reporting the HP is looking to dump what’s left of Palm and webOS as quickly as possible, and Amazon is nearing a deal to make the acquisition. Read on for more.

Amazon unveiled its first full-scale tablet earlier this week, the Kindle Fire, which runs a highly customized version of Google’s Android operating system. The company put a great deal of R&D and other resources behind customizing the free, open-source Android OS, and it would appear that Amazon plans to update and maintain the platform independent of Google. As such, it is unclear exactly how purchasing webOS from HP would benefit Amazon.

With one tablet nearing release and a second tablet being prepped for an early 2012 launch, webOS would cost Amazon a small fortune and essentially force the company to go back to the drawing board in terms of building hardware around an entirely new platform. Neither HP nor Amazon would comment on the report.

Read

Tags:
, , , ,
23 Comments

Related Articles

  • Michael Neidlinger

    I cannot believe that this has nothing to do with apple.

    Who is the new writer for BGR?

    • Anonymous

      It’s cum stains like you who JUST made it about apple by bringing it up. Idiot.

      • Michael Neidlinger

        It looks like other agree with me. true story.

  • GZ

    If Google is so worried about patents why don’t “they” buy WebOS?

    • Anonymous

      And force devs to develop new apps? In the ‘special minds’ of Google engineers they believe they’re the best in their respective fields…so they will just steal it!

  • Anonymous

    Efff it! I’m going to buy WebOS!

    Write a story about me. :)

    • Anonymous

      Hahaha, 
      And they could write that I predict you will fail cause your are not in the OS domain  

      • http://www.thegadgetgurus.net Vic

        But wait, Vic is predicting that Chris102192 might have a potential iPhone 5 killer in the works with a reworked version of WebOS coming out Q2 2012. Stay posted!

  • Anonymous

    BS. Next article please.

  • Steve Langford

    Where’s that playbook article BGR?

  • Anonymous

    Go to hell HP..

  • bmach505

    Amazon has the resources and the customer base to make WebOS a contender again. They could be an MVNO on some network, throw wads of cash at developers for apps and then give the phones away for free. This is exciting news.

    • jay_max

      I think many grossly underestimate Amazon’s ability to innovate and compete.  This is potentially a big move by Amazon.

    • http://twitter.com/Synergi Synergi

      Agreed, with Amazon behind it, it could grow to rival IOS and Android..

  • Anonymous

    If webOS were to ever take off, it would have to be purchased by a company with a large footprint such as Amazon. HP just completely dropped the ball. I for one would LOVE to see Amazon adopt webOS and show people it’s usefulness. However, with the Windows 8 tablets, Android Tablets, and iOS tablets, I don’t know if there will be room for another.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t understand why companies – apparently more than one – are interested in webOS. Android is a perfectly usable, well-tested, thoroughly supported by developers operating system. If the companies are interesting in the User Interface – and that IS understandable – then they can clone it and put it on top of Android – the cost of doing that would be measured in no MORE than 10s of millions of dollars (actually, probably a lot less, given what we saw with TealPoint Software’s clone within a couple weeks of the webOS intro).

    • http://twitter.com/rtk777 Robert Knight

      Why would they want to have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft for using Android ? It’s lame. Web OS would be great for Amazon. Plus, they would have the patent for “THE” smartphone. Think about it, when HP was actively working on WEB OS, no one even thought abought suing them. Just like RIM HARDLY EVER gets sued. Why ? Because they have VERY VERY strong patent prtfolios to defend them.

      I’ve often thought that when Palm was up for sale, RIM should’ve bought them. Even if it was just for the patents. Obviously, RIM felt that they had a strong enough portfolio as it was. I guess they were right.

      I would love to see Amazon acquire Web OS and make Web OS tablets and phones, but they would need top of the line hardware. None of this cheap crap. I would definitely consider their products if that did come to pass. I personally don’t like Android, and I sure as hell don’t trust Google.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_32WAIXUUB76F52GKEBCWGHTL6Q Derrick

      I guess they think they can make more money if they own a popular OS. Andriod is free but Companies that don’t play ball with google get shafted!

  • Anonymous

    Ah, so there’s how Amazon will be able to ship zillions of devices without having to pay piles of royalties to Microsoft or anyone else.  Even if WebOS is irrelevant, Palm’s patent library is a very hot commodity.

  • Jen Smyers

    Boo on HP. Yay for Amazon! Please, please Amazon – bring back my Palm Pre! I love this phone, and refuse to learn how to use anything else. 

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47W6CR65QNWSRIPYCFU4C6VXE4 I

       Then buy a Pre3 on eBay…not that hard since all the employees bought thousands to sell

  • http://identi.ca/LauRoman LaurenÈ›iu Roman

    After the aquisition the software will be renamed from WebOS to BezOS.

  • Anonymous

    First tablets, then the Amazon phone; so long crApple hahahaha.  Amazon has the moxy and deep pockets to do this.  Methinks we will have a horse race eh?

blog comments powered by Disqus