Oh webOS we hardly knew ye
Rarely does a technology’s lifecycle end with a bang, its usually a whimper. Such was the case with webOS. As of late I’ve been hysterically bored with technology of the day. Apple products are wonderful and reliable but never risky or revolutionary as of late (can you say Apple glasses soon?). Seems that every other competitor insists on following Apple’s lead without much variation.
The period of 2007-2012 was a completely different story. Wild designs, iPhone release, iPad release, Twitter springs to life, Android shows up to the party, webOS is born and quietly starts it long march towards irrelevance. Following and consuming technology during this time frame created addicts out of all of us. Today’s thoughts have been focused on webOS, specifically the ugly part of the HP purchase of Palm and the unfortunate final build and release of the TouchPad.
Palm had again reinvented itself after Apple’s quick rise to grab all the smartphone attention. Windows Mobile went from #1 to “who?” Android initially sprang to life with a pointer (any G1 fans out there?). Palm pivoted with a team built with some industry heavyweights like Jon Rubinstein and design expertise from Matias Duarte along with other experienced leaders and staff.
Who recalls the first time they picked up a Palm Pre and used the webOS card interface? Blew my mind for sure. Way ahead of it’s time, webOS invented UI/UX elements that are still being copied by Apple and Google. Like the Palm of the past this iteration always seemed on the brink of industry-leading success or bankruptcy. 2010 found Palm in the crosshairs of HP with Mark Hurd before he jumped ship for Oracle. Once Duarte departed for Google many began to wonder how long all the innovations would continue.
HP/Palm announced the Pre 3 smartphone along with a the adorable Veer small form factor smartphone and the first ever webOS tablet, the HP TouchPad. https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2011/webOS/index.html
Worth reminding that iPad was still relatively new and interest in multitouch-only tablets still yet to be fully confirmed by many users. Having purchase the first iPad the potential of these devices was quite clear to me and HP’s announcement came with excitement in my house. Hard to imagine that this was the beginning of the end. Others far more skilled than I have written about the failure of the HP TouchPad and HP’s colossal mishandling of webOS itself. Industry tracking quickly showed that the TouchPad wasn’t selling, https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/08/17/touchpad-best-buy
I lucked out on the following fire sale of TouchPads and went to Best Buy and bought the TouchPad and all accessories for less than $200 (discounted all in from around $700 retail price). HP quickly pulled back all other units and ended all sales of the TouchPad. Ironically, HP ending sales of the TouchPad resulted in a deluge of demand for it as many weren’t convinced yet that it was a flop. I spent a couple of months with he TouchPad, even recorded a bit of a walk through (see below) and later sold it all for around $500. Looking back I regret selling it and should have kept it. With hindsight we know that the TouchPad was rushed and too many of its components were relegated to what Palm could scrap together from the supply chain shelf. In it’s battle with the IPad 2 it failed but the impact of webOS and TouchPad’s legacy remain.
Classic walk through of the TouchPad from August 2011 - https://youtu.be/aB39no88vP0
UPDATE - Andrew Rich shared this excellent read from The Verge of what might have been - https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/2/5264580/the-lost-secrets-of-webos
