Palm's webOS lives on.... as an Android app
Palm webOS fans left in the cold from HP's debacle with the mobile operating system can rejoice a little. HP open-sourced the webOS platform, making for some interesting third-party webOS efforts and giving the platform a new lease on life.
Context & Ripple Effects
HP’s beta release of Open webOS in August followed its decision to open-source the platform, creating room for third-party work after the company’s earlier effort to support TouchPad developers. The Android app is a small but concrete sign that webOS can retain a user-facing presence without HP shipping it as a standalone mobile platform.
The story arrives while Android is reported to lead smartphone sales and mobile-ad share, making Android a practical distribution base for a webOS-derived experience rather than a direct rival platform.
First-order effects
- webOS fans gain an Android-based way to access part of the platform’s experience, while HP’s open-source move gains a visible third-party outcome.
- HP no longer has to be the sole steward of webOS for developers to adapt its software to other mobile environments.
Second-order effects
- Android becomes the host environment for a former competing mobile platform’s community, concentrating user attention and developer experimentation inside the leading ecosystem.
- Third-party webOS efforts shift the platform’s value away from HP hardware and toward reusable software, interfaces, and community maintenance.
Third-order effects
- If open-source mobile platforms survive mainly through apps and ports on dominant operating systems, independent OS competition increasingly gives way to features and communities absorbed by larger platforms.
- The webOS case points to public operating systems as a way to preserve software assets after a vendor exits direct platform stewardship, though their reach depends on distribution through established ecosystems.
The trend: Mobile operating systems that lose vendor backing are increasingly seeking continuity through open-source communities and distribution within dominant platforms.