HP is planning to make Palm's WebOS software

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard is planning and developing WebOS devices. HP, which purchased Palm Inc. in 2010, is also planning to make Palm's WebOS software available as an open-source program.--HP has had a rocky history with its TouchPad devices. Whitman's predecessor, Leo Apotheker, said in August that HP was backing out of smartphone and TouchPad development, and was studying the option of backing out of computer production.

There are two common outcomes when companies convert a complicated proprietary project into open-source software. I think HP would like the first outcome based on Chief Executive Meg Whitman's high hopes: "By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open-source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices." HP tried shopping WebOS around, but finding the options unappealing, bet on a less conventional direction. Developers weren't interested enough in building Symbian. So even if HP tries to keep WebOS as an actively developed operating system for tablets, for example, it may be open-source in name only. HP acquired WebOS with its $1.2 billion Palm purchase last year, but short-lived CEO Leo Apotheker decided to ditch WebOS and the mobile devices it powered.

HP's promise to keep developers actively working on WebOS sounds more like the plan for the Linux-based MeeGo OS that Nokia pushed aside in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone: The operating system now merely has an "opportunity to significantly improve applications and Web services for the next generation of devices." Sun's Java and Solaris open-source projects were equally fraught. Yahoo, for example, supports the Apache open-source Hadoop project that competes with Google's in-house equivalent, MapReduce, for analyzing mammoth data sets. So might open-source WebOS exert some pressure on the incumbent mobile operating systems? WebOS, open-source or not, lacks that support.

Note that there's already an open-source mobile OS out there today that has plenty of apps: Android. After Google releases Android versions' source code, academics, Amazon, CyanogenMod programmers, or third-tier device makers sink their teeth into it and build their own versions of the operating system. Only after Google is finished planning and developing Android internally does it release the source code. Perhaps WebOS will shame Google into letting some others into the Android party, especially if an open-source WebOS becomes a fruitful proving ground for new mobile technology that shows Google that Android could benefit from a broader perspective.

Hewlett-Packard said it will make its WebOS software available to the open-source community and Chief Executive Meg Whitman said in two separate interviews that there are plans to create new WebOS hardware -- including tablets. The WebOS platform offers several benefits to the ecosystem of Web apps, HP said, including allowing developers to easily build applications using standard Web technologies. For device manufacturers, it provides a single Web-centric platform to run across multiple devices. TechCrunch also obtained an internal email Whitman sent out to HP staff announcing the WebOS news. So far, HP hasn't seen much success with its TouchPad tablets.