HP to Install webOS in Every New PC Next Year
Hewlett-Packard wasn't joking when it announced the webOS mobile operating system would appear on computers as well. HP CEO Leo Apotheker has confirmed that all HP laptops and desktops will come with webOS.
Apotheker told Bloomberg Businessweek that all PCs his company ships will be loaded with webOS in addition to Microsoft Windows, starting next year.
The decision is part of a bigger initiative to encourage developers to make apps for the webOS platform. Currently, a mobile operating system thrives on the quantity and quality of apps for it, and because Android and iOS (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) have the most users, developers have been making the most apps for those two platforms. By putting webOS in thousands of computers , HP will significantly expand the user base (currently webOS is only available on two phone models that haven't sold very competitively) and thus make webOS more attractive to developers.
While Apple has shown that consumers are interested in apps for computers with the creation of the Mac App Store, there is little precedent for a mobile operating system running a PC. Android has been used on tablets and phones, and iOS works well for the iPad, but it's a different story using a stripped-down mobile OS on a desktop. Fortunately, webOS is more PC-friendly in that it has native multitasking and Adobe Flash support that other mobile OSes lack, so perhaps with a large app base consumers won't mind a webOS PC at all.
