Re:It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones and the TouchPad
by drgath on Thursday August 18, 2011 @05:25PM
(#2901157)
"Why would anyone be interested in purchasing a failed-to-launch tablet product when Android tablets sell well and the software is free"
a) webOS is an OS that has been shipped on much more than just this latest tablet. It's a fantastic OS, but has been hampered by poor execution by Palm & HP.
b) Android tablets are not selling well.
Re:It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones and the TouchPad
by blinkingled on Thursday August 18, 2011 @05:06PM
(#2901084)
Yes. Palm patents have the potential of creating another Nortel type situation. That is possibly a part of "optimization of webOS revenue". Would be interesting to see who gets a hold of this pile.
Re:It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones and the TouchPad
by drgath on Thursday August 18, 2011 @05:29PM
(#2901176)
HP already has a hold of this pile. I wouldn't just assume that because they're exiting the hardware business they have no (future) need for that portfolio. Heck, if anything, they'll have to hold on to those if they hope to license webOS to other handset makers (the latest rumor).
Re:It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones and the TouchPad
by blinkingled on Thursday August 18, 2011 @05:41PM
(#2901233)
It is hard to imagine why they will sit on the Palm portfolio without hardware business considering their new focus is to become IBM/SAP like - enterprisey. IBM for e.g. sold 1000 patents to Google short while ago.
And besides, I am not certain webOS licensing is going to go very far. We will see..
Re:It’s Official: HP Kills Off webOS Phones and the TouchPad
by bradleyland on Friday August 19, 2011 @10:28AM
(#2903447)
There's definitely a lot of strategy being reviewed inside HP right now. They have a number of options available to them, some of which include licensing the entire platform, or even specific patents. Having paid $1.2bn for Palm, and having observed two large patent portfolios sell for a number that is 10x that, I'd imagine that there is at least some consideration being given to exiting while the market for mobile patents is hot. Licensing is a much longer play, but it's also fraught with the risk of having to enforce the portfolio with litigation, not to mention the threat of patent reform.
However! I think the big sale is yet to come. When HP bought Palm, they acquired their 1,600-ish patents as well. Palm was a very early player in the smartphone market, so it's conceivable that this portfolio contains some attractive property. Having paid $1.2 billion for Palm, either selling this patent portfolio outright, or taking the Lodsys route seems plausible. Given the heat around patent acquisition right now, they'd probably do pretty well; maybe even exceeding their original purchase price.