Apotheker sees webOS as no threat to Microsoft, complimentary to Windows [video] 48
Earlier today, Fortune Magazine Editor-At-Large Adam Lashinsky published an extensive interview with HP CEO Leo Apotheker where they discussed everything from Apotheker’s take on the recent management shake-ups at HP to his perspective on webOS competing with Android and iOS in both consumer and enterprise. One of the major topics Lashinsky focused on during his interview was the strength of the relationship with Microsoft, and how HP’s decision to enter the mobile competition with webOS may impact that. Read on for Apotheker's take on the situation (with video) after the break
Apotheker didn’t mince words in his assessment of the situation, “It's not a threat at all... Microsoft doesn't view it as a threat, and we don't intend it to be a threat. Future PCs will be running Windows, whatever version, and they will also be running WebOS--it's not a threat, it's complimentary. Microsoft knows about WebOS, we know what they want to do. It's a great partnership and I look forward to continuing that partnership in the future.”
Lashinsky smartly followed-up on that response by noting that if the future of computing was mobile, and that mobile vision for HP was webOS rather than a Microsoft, that could be seen as a threat to them.
Interestingly, Apotheker’s response was to note that his view of the future of computing was one of heterogeneous connectivity, where end users wouldn’t have to be tied entirely into one system or the other. He went on to imagine a world where the cloud might have Microsoft software on it and webOS devices accessed it, or vice-versa. One can only speculate as to what this vice-versa scenario might be, but it certainly suggests that HP is continuing to think big with it’s new OS. He added that, “People want choice, people are living in the heterogeneous world, and we want to support that, and WebOS will support heterogeneity.”
Apotheker also spoke about the the complementary role webOS could play in enhancing the Windows PC experience, including adopting the webOS UI, accessing the App Catalog, and using Synergy for updating across calendars and devices at once. Apotheker also hinted that there was more to come with additional features being added to webOS in the future, though it was “a little bit too early,” for him to elaborate on that any further of course.
Finally, in a rather telling exchange, Apotheker was asked why not just have webOS a complement to Windows on the TouchPad as well. Apotheker noted, “At the end of the day, a tablet is still not a PC, so there's only so much you can cram into a tablet.”
Perhaps this was a lesson HP learned firsthand with the Slate led them to webOS in the first place.
All told, this interview not only speaks to HP’s ideas on innovating in the mobile space, but also to the multifaceted nature of their business and how far the ripple effect of their purchase of Palm last year has the potential to go.
Source: Fortune; Thanks, Casey!
48 Comments
Leo, I don't like your face, but I like your OS. Give me more WebOS and less talky-talk face time, please!
:)
Kind of like a cross between Billy Bob Thornton and Earnest Borgnine
Factoring in the voice, I was going with Blofeld combined with Ernest Borgnine.
Since Ernest Borgnine is one of the coolest people that ever lived I do not see this as a bad thing. OK, he didn't look so hot, but he was--and still is--super awesome!
There, I've done my chivalrous duty for today...
“At the end of the day, a tablet is still not a PC, so there's only so much you can cram into a tablet.”
This guy has a great head between his shoulders.
A tablet is a tablet, unless you add a keyboard or mice to it. Which will make it a PC.
So, is there a big mobile device connectivity void out there? If there is then I don't see it. My mobile device seems pretty connected to me. Google syncs my email and my calendar. Facebook syncs my social graph. Dropbox syncs my files. Netflix connect me to video media. Streaming services connect me to music. All for free. Where is the connectivity problem? More importantly, who is HP to tell me that they can improve connectivity? What have they done in this area thus far?
Sure there is a connectivity problem between machines, for example,
You can't have your home air conditioner monitored over the cloud by using your phone.
You can't print documents on your printer over the cloud by using your phone.
You can't get a copy of medical records from the MRI machine to your phone (assuming the sensitive medical is encrypted).
You can't get your automobile information from the ECM to your phone.
maybe you can't
Sure, if HP takes another two years , may be I can't do any of it.,
Aren't there already monitoring/control apps for PCs, cars, security systems, home theaters, climate control, and several other machine-to-machine functions on iOS and Android?
Yup, there are apps for iOS and Android. Leo's prediction is that iOS will loose this marathon because it is a walled garden. Regarding Android, he thinks its not built from the ground up based on "connectivity" as its core foundation.
My feeling is that HP might have seen some pilot projects before acquisition. He was clear when he said they have some cool features in the works that he cannot talk about it now.
Think about it, iOS will be boring OS in about a year or two. Why ? it needs a PC or Mac to activate a iPod/iPhone/iPad. If Apple had thought about cloud computing they would have removed that "iTunes" activation thing from their devices at least two years back. Apple is seriously behind on OS Software. They are brilliant for bringing new hardware on not so great software.
Android is eating Apple's market while HP is beating Apple on cloud computing. It definitely is a marathon. HP has cash for the long race.
I would imagine that the manufacturers of these appliances are considering this kind of connectivity. However, if they are thinking of a mobile device to connect to, I'm pretty sure they aren't thinking of a Pre. They are thinking about connecting to an Android device or iPhone or iPad. For example, a company called HP launched ePrint, a kind of connectivity that most people would actually want, for iOS. Perhaps they didn't know about webOS.
It's like watching the keystone cops.
These interviews are excruciating. "No one wants binary homogeneity, but rather heterogeneous connectivity"? What?
It means that people want to tap two webOS mobile devices together to send a URL from one device to another - "I'm in the middle of reading PreCentral on my Pre and now I have my Touchpad in front of me. What will I do?? WHAT WILL I DO?? HELP!!!"
That's what HP's got right now. Everything else is fantasy.
Pfft....touch URL transfers are going to be the Instagram of 2012. You wait and see....
Ohh. I´m thinking really productive connectivity!
I´m an orthopedics. I already have my RX on my windows pc after a lot of clicks, and like 20 ft away from my patient. But I want them right next to him. Also his prescriptions, labs, MRI, everything with an elegant WebOS interface. STACKING my cards, my RX by dates, or labs by hour.
Just thinking about that makes me reeeeally excited. (sorry I love my job).
I cant wait to have a way to spend more time around my patient.
Please tell me English is not your first language. If it is, you need to edit your post. I kid, I kid . . . . .
Wow, that's a great litany of consumer offerings integrated to your mobile device. Problem is that you are 3 people - a consumer, an employee and a citizen. All 3 segments are not integrated into mobile devices - yet. Plus, as was mentioned by others what about device to device integration. There's a whole world of devices that HP produces and has in the labs ready to go to market that will need to be integrated as well.
Have you ever used Synergy?
I wish he hit more upon machine to machine access using a non walled garden approach. Apple is not sitting idle , they are forcing other industries to use their tablet. Take the case of Pilots using iPad.
What happened to his talk about rolling devices out when they claimed they would be ready? mobile computing will probably turn out to be more of a marathon than sprint, but making your device/OS irrelevant can remove yourself from the marathon also. i am going to miss gestures and swiping, cards and just typing for searching, but will miss nothing else about the experience. I will especially not miss the 2nd to 3rd class hardware options. My wife, my sister, and i all still have a Pre- and are all breaking down and waiting for renewal date.
how can a company so big and with so many resources be so far behind on hardware. by the time they have a launch the majority of people that were peaked and interested by the the announce event will have moved on. And how many original users are going to be gone due to no updates and also having done nothing for original users as they were promised. a promise that was once again a broken promise.
i would imagine people have stuck around for one of 3 reasons, no upgrade available, are broke, and homebrew.
maybe they will get their **** together and in a year or two they will be up to speed and smooth out the rough edges of this great OS, until then...
I finally had to breakdown and get an EVO to replace my Pre(-). I do miss the swiping and few minor conveniences with notifications, but.....I do not miss the crappy hardware. Sure, the EVO is a year old phone, but it feels like a cheetah next to the Pre(-)[and I had it oc'd to 1GHz]. Also, I feel somewhat like a **** for sticking around as long as I did. There are so many more apps/ options available on Android. Yeah, it has it's share of sh*tty apps in the market, but there are also a bunch of useful apps that I doubt will ever make it to webOS. I would love to see webOS make a comeback but I just don't see it happening. Such a shame because it really was (is) a slick interface.
Yet you're still here...smh...you must be missing something if your EVO is so 'great'...
Why do people think you must leave a board if you get another device? Any friendships you form here must not be worth much if they are conditional on the other person NEVER leaving this platform.
I think there might even be insight to be gained from people who can evaluate other platforms from the perspective of an experienced WebOS user. It's ok to be an enthusiast of one product whilst owning another...I promise it is....
Not sure. The mods seem to favor certain people. They've banned the more knowledgeable ones. The admin don't care and don't bother to respond. Makes sense since they don't really participate in the forums either beyond the few cheerleader mods.
Thank you for the support. webOS is great, but I needed a new phone and HP had nothing to offer. Yes, I will still check the site to see what is happening.
+1.
It looks to me folks are not enthusiastic about the platform they leave. May be they got no time. or May be they are not enthusiasts.
Hey, I like the OS, but not the phone. What's wrong with seeing if HP ever releases anything. If they do & there are more apps to run on it, I'll get one. In the meantime I'm enjoying having a phone that works without having to patch, hack & mend it.
I left to get an Evo for the same reasons you did. I come back the forums and find that I can sometimes still be of help. And if not, i realized my old Pre- can now run webOS 2.1 (with some hackery) and I am actually interested in the Pre3.
I'll keep coming here as long as there is interesting news.
nnb
Please remember that Pre products are from Palm, while the upcoming phones are from HP.
HP>Palm
You are certainly an optimist. I have not seen anything here on PreCentral, or anywhere else for that matter, that indicates there is still a relationship between HP (webOS-wise) and Sprint. The Pre3 FCC listing article seems to further confirm that. I think we have to assume that to continue to use webOS we will have to go to another carrier. And with the Veer apparently only a GSM device, and again the Pre3 GSM news, it would appear AT&T is that carrier. Am I wrong? Does anyone else see something I'm not seeing?
sad that the demo of the touchpad (about 2mins in) still shows signs of lag
This is not avoidable, as lags are common on web technologies, even in web browsers on a PC or Mac.
Please stop making excuses for Palm. The page ppp2 is talking about is http://www.palm.com/us/products/pads/touchpad/index.html
Now, I have a first gen iPad and it scrolls that page just fine with much less processing power and RAM than the TouchPad. Why is that? Because they took the time to implement hardware assisted scrolling with the GPU? Also, I have no lag on that page with Chrome 10, IE9, or FF4. What are you talking about?
Look, this is an operating system that is based on WEB technologies and can't properly scroll basic websites yet. Now, it's not a final product so I'm not too concerned just yet, but it's still telling that they have a lot of work to do.
Did anyone else get a droid advertised video when they clicked on the link for this article?
I fully agree with Apotheker...how can a MEANINGLESS word be a threat for an EXCISTING company?
WebOS doesn't mean anything outside the US. No, i'm not trolling....just a frustrated former Palm user who is tired of waiting for over two years and the deafening silence from Palm (before) and HP (after).
Pretty confident MSFT doesn't see webos as a threat, not even to WP7 with the endemic mismanagement of the webos platform. Google and apple are probably laughing their asses off now.
Half the reason other people stick around here is for the entertainment. Watching this trainwreck unfold makes for good comedy. And you never know what HP is going to do next but usually it's the opposite of common sense.
LOL, I bet Microsoft is relieved that he doesn't see it as a threat to them. ;-)
Heterogeneity is a wonderful vision, but it will take a tremendous amount of work on HP's part to make it as smooth and seamless as a homogeneous ecosystem. The UI and connectivity of Apple's products work so well for so many people because they control every aspect.
What really concerns me is that HP seems to be looking for niches in the current market that others are ignoring (e.g. Veer, wireless printing) rather than trying to compete directly. They don't want to go head-to-head, but graze alongside.
I'm just not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling about the future of webOS smart-phones from all of this. They seem to realize that the only differentiation they have right now in smart-phones is the Pre form factor (which I love and is the reason I'm still here) so they are not straying from it. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be what the majority want. If webOS is going to be a factor in the smartphone market and attract developers HP is going to have to compete directly with the keyboard-less slabs and horizontal sliders everyone else is offering. And they better do it quick, which I just don't see happening. It seems like they have already surrendered this round.
I think Leo knows this is a train wreck. He knows he won't get the blame for it so he's doing what he can with the BS while it derails.
I just wish this a****le would just tell us when the pre3 is coming out so i know how much longer I can maneuver this Pre until then.
I honestly don't have the foggiest idea what this guy is talking about or what value yet another OS on windows would bring. I'm not saying it worthless just that i don't see a value in it yet. but i'm open to be persuaded. But it's not very straightforward and i can't say its something i've been desiring.
About the Pre3 and Sprint - look at the FCC notice higher up the PreCentral page. It has TWO CDMA frequencies for transmission and TWO for reception. I am not a radioman, but to me this looks like it is designed for TWO CDMA carriers, ie Sprint and Verizon.
For all the Sprint Pre owners out there, I hope I'm right!
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"By SWPeddler on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:49 am EDT
new
+1
You are certainly an optimist. I have not seen anything here on PreCentral, or anywhere else for that matter, that indicates there is still a relationship between HP (webOS-wise) and Sprint. The Pre3 FCC listing article seems to further confirm that."
I understand your confusion, but the FCC listing for the Pre 3 refers to WCDMA which is not the same as CDMA. That phone is for GSM networks only, not Verizon or Sprint.
Exactly. If you read my post carefully, you'll note that I'm convinced those hoping that any of the 2/9-announced devices will show up on Sprint are hoping in vain. Not trying to be harsh, but it's probably time to either switch to another carrier or to another phone vendor (and in the meantime, we should all give Sprint a piece of our mind).
Well, the vision which Leo Aptheker is trumpeting -- "Apotheker also spoke about the the complementary role webOS could play in enhancing the Windows PC experience" -- is one which ignores the hundreds and thousands of Mac Laptop and Mac Desktop owners. Is HP just writing them all off as people who will never use or be interested in WebOS devices?
Seems pretty moronic and shortsighted to me.