Can we break through the webOS service with HP's open authorization?

Remember Palm? In those years, we affectionately called it "fat friends ". Although it was once a time, it was eventually drowned in the flood of mobile devices.

With the absence of the Palm device, the number of webOS in the operating system left behind brought the grief of the attacker who was not agile. In webOS, we have seen many highlights leading the operating system of other mobile devices, among which push notifications and multi-task switching have won numerous praise. However, for various reasons, webOS never shines. Palm hopes that webOS's plans will also go bankrupt and eventually be acquired by HP.

With the acquisition of Palm, webOS is easy to master HP. HP has more funds and stronger hardware capabilities, and webOS advocates seem to have seen hope again, but the bad news has continued, and many executives leave their posts, the "Four muskeys" responsible for webOS development run separately, and it is doubtful whether hp can retain talents. Although webOS is still developing and new devices are also introduced, it still gives people the feeling that it is a bit of thunderous rain, and the app store is not warm, so it is amazing.

So this time, is the heavy rain coming?

Is HP required to enable authorization?

The potential of webOS cannot be ignored. However, few competitors can compare its advantages with those of webOS. So now we see a blockbuster news from Hewlett-Packard: Hewlett-Packard will open its webOS system authorization. "The webOS system will not only run on specific hardware devices manufactured by HP," said John Apotheker, president and CEO of Hp, at the D9 Conference held in Rancho Palos Verdes, California ."

Although L éo Apotheker did not point out the specific cooperation manufacturers at the meeting, he said that companies in a large area are interested in this, such as electrical appliance manufacturers. Enterprises and small companies may also purchase webOS authorization for internal systems of the company's firewall.

So what if companies that directly compete with HP want to adopt webOS systems? At the meeting, Joshua Topolsky, the former Engadget Editor, raised such an interesting question. He asked, "Do you want to allow webOS-based mobile phones from smartphone manufacturers like HTC ?" The answer provided by Apotheker is simple and clear: "Of course we welcome this ."

Are you sure you want to fight?

So, is HP going to open webOS? However, if we think about it, it is still reasonable for HP to do so.

HP is not Apple. If it is closed, it cannot compete with apple in terms of culture and product influence. Furthermore, although webOS has advantages, it is not an order of magnitude in terms of market share, number of developers, and peripheral software support. It is difficult for HP to start from scratch as iOS did.

Relatively speaking, webOS may be more like WP7, both of which have their own characteristics, but have not yet become the mainstream. Therefore, webOS open authorization can be said to be a wise choice. It is better to open the door to gain a good reputation than to close the door and think about it. To achieve a breakthrough, you must first make the system bigger, and then make a way out of your hardware. At least you can also be the leader of a platform and earn profits from the platform you have mastered.

How to make profits?

However, the opening of webOS is not a panacea and requires a large investment, and the effect will be slow. With regard to large investment, we have discussed in webOS: Why only Geek developers are far from enough. We can say that as market followers, only a large amount of investment can attract attention. Why is the effect slow?

From the perspective of the authorization fee, the income obtained through authorization is very limited and will reduce your competitiveness. After all, Android is free of charge. We once reported "Microsoft's Competitive Strategy: increasing the cost of using Android systems by manufacturers". Microsoft's licensing fee is $15 per server, and the price is not high, to increase the cost of using Android for hardware vendors, Microsoft charges HTC, the partner, a patent fee. Even so, the cost of Android is still lower than that of WP7. Microsoft has plans to charge more patent fees to other carriers, and even wants to reach $12.5, but it is still unknown whether it can be implemented. It is almost impossible for HP to request higher licensing fees from other hardware vendors.

From the perspective of app stores, how to make profits is still a problem. After webOS authorization, if a third party is allowed to develop its own App Store, it will be a threat to its own app store. From the perspective of profit model, Apple's App Store is the only Store. With its own strong position, in negotiations with operators, Apple gained the right to share apps from App Store, apple also has its own iTunes Store to ensure huge profits.

However, although Google has made app revenue share and allowed third-party app stores to get support from operators, Google has its own mobile advertising platform, you can make a profit by adding free ad models that you are best. So, how can we make profits through the app store? We haven't seen any clear model yet.

This means that for a long time, webOS is likely to be a profitable business. The R & D costs, cloud service provision, and marketing costs must be filled by other departments. How long can HP maintain its enthusiasm if it cannot make a profit for a long time?

Complex Ecosystem?

After authorization, HP will become a platform provider, which means it must invest a considerable amount of energy to manage the entire ecosystem, but unlike Google and Microsoft, it is also a hardware vendor, this means that it is also a competitive relationship with other hardware vendors, which makes the relationship of the ecosystem more complex. The enthusiasm of hardware vendors for investment still needs to be watched, and how to balance and control requires more skills.

Hewlett-Packard has clearly realized that the platform is more important than the hardware, so it is worth noting that it wants to develop its own platform through open authorization, but how to attract and use hardware vendors, A faster promotion platform will undoubtedly be the next challenge for HP. As the Ars website says

If Android is used by many manufacturers to prove one thing, it is to combine the system and hardware to care about and care for the emergence of outstanding products.

However, we have noticed that from Apotheker's words, it seems that webOS will not only be used for consumer handheld devices, but may be promoted in a broader field, as Jon Rubinstein said, webOS won't be widely authorized. Maybe HP doesn't mean "Android Killer" or "iPhone Killer" in combination with hardware vendors, but to create another way to survive webOS.

Can a single battle survive? Palm thought, RIM was thinking, Nokia figured it out. Can HP alone save webOS? Maybe you really need to find an ally.