Phil McKinney at MobileBeat 2010 82
We're live at the MobileBeat 2010 conference! Phil McKinney, HP's CTO and friend to webOS and Palm takes the stage shortly. We'll update this post as he gives his keynote:
The Perfect Storm of Innovation Why do device makers need to innovate in software in the current market? How does this play into the coming deluge of connected devices? McKinney shares developments now underway at his own organization, including HP’s vision for next-generation connected devices, and how to tap into the promise of the cloud.
Keynote's over, folks! McKinney showed off some flexible display technology (but very far into the future). He also said he's excited to see webOS on Slate devices - but emphatically not THE Slate, McKinney was clear he wasn't making any announcements right now.
As expected, no new hardware announcements, but McKinney's understanding of the mobility market and his optimistic and open attitude should make webOS fans take heart. For the record, it does look like whatever the next hardware is going to be, it'll be based on Palm's current roadmap and not a complete reboot: "[Palm has] got some great plans and some great things coming, so stay tuned."
Last but not least, McKinney called out the homebrew and developer community around webOS more than once and it definitely didn't feel pro forma. Instead, looks like HP is genuinely enthused by how much all you homebrewers have accomplished.
Hit us up after the break for the full breakdown of the event, including McKinney's impromptu chart making skills.
8:48: yeah, let's just make this easier with a coveritlive embed, above.
8:45: Last year was about apps, this year is about the "superphone revolution."
8:42: Marshall does a killer Steve Jobs impression
8:40: Matt Marshall and Matthaus Krzykowski of MobileBeat take the stage to kick us off.
8:35: We're beginning with an intro video about the MobileBeat conference.
82 Comments
new hardware pleeeeeeease!!!!! *fingers crossed*
Don't Count on it
Don't get your hopes up. Will not happen. Guaranteed.
I would guess that we need two things for an announcement:
1) A satisfactory reduction in the level of Pre inventory.
2) A high profile event with suitable media coverage for an announcement.
We've seen HP hold their cards tight, ala Slate. They are the largest PC maker in a field that was even more competitive than Phones, so they may know what they're doing.
Yup. Before the announcement happens, we will all be sure to be notified of the event. Something like MobileBeat is not a place to do it. It's not an expo of any sort. Until that time comes, I'll be patiently waiting. Let's hope it comes sooner rather than later.
Anyone seen McKinney sporting "mystery hardware?"
I'll take a leak, a hint, anything to nibble on. It's been pretty slow for me here, other than kernel and Govnah testing. Give me something to talk about. Any rumors would be greatly appreciated.
Heck, I'll even take a tease at this point. Someone call him with 45 seconds left in his talk and have him answer it on some shiny new, unknown bling-phone.
Anything that can start the speculation and rumor-mill going would be awesome.
Common Phil. Bring it with the AWESOME HARDWARE!!!
Man I actually have butterflies in my stomach knowing that his speech will start in 10 minutes and be over in 40!!!! I hope this speech has the hints of newness we are all itching for.
Heck maybe we'll get lucky and get a release date.
yea I keep refreshing on my pre, hoping we have some "news"
yea I keep refreshing on my pre, hoping we have some "news"
Now this is the post I've been waiting for! Fingers crossed for SOMETHING about new hardware!
No live blogging software this time? Hitting refesh is getting a bit annoying.
yea I keep refreshing on my pre, hoping we have some "news"
yea I keep refreshing on my pre, hoping we have some "news"
i was excited about the courier knock off from toshiba..
http://www.somanyphones.com/toshiba-shows-libretto-w100-dual-screen-lapt...
interesting.. if you had a dual screen webos tablet like this
I finally got around to installing F105 yesterday. Using my Pre clocked at 1GHz with Compcache active makes it obvious that new hardware is necessary - my phone feels like an entirely different beast, running so much faster and letting me have dozens of apps open. Hopefully we'll see some killer Palm hardware today!
Actually, we need webOS 2.0. Throwing hardware at slow software is NOT the solution. Optimize the software. The hardware is fine. It's the software that doesn't have CSS transitions and access to the GPU which forces the CPU to take the full load and THAT'S why the 1GHz does so much.
Stop refreshing after you sent a post it will make it repost you have to go back to the article.
I'm not expecting anything more than a "We're working on new WebOS phones."
LOL whiteboard presentation FTL. Might as well bust out an eisel.
he just said ''i am not making an announcment'' well so much for the hardware leak
So he goes to a mobile device conference, and shows off wallpaper screens... Cool idea,but something tells me that this isn't the place or the time to announce that!
holy cr*p, he said hp wants to win in mobile phone space!_ heavy investment in palm's R&D
Lets see some FLASH, some NEW HARDWARE and more APPS!!!
PS Slacker caching too please!
BAH!
*sigh*
Ugghhhh. Roadmap. Stay tuned. Roadmap. Roadmap.
kind of disappointing...
I knew there wouldn't be anything, but I can't help but be disappointed anyway.
I was looking forward to THIS!?
Well that sucked!
They didn't have to announce something specific, just a simple "The next webOS phone hardware will be a significant step beyond the iPhone4" would do.
But nothing. Disappointing
Nothing we haven't heard before...it's pretty much a repeat of all the PR junk we've been hearing lately.
Did he say "We're not going to preannounce products"?
Are they going to announce them the day they hit the market?
Haha, good one.
That was a complete waste of time. Probably shouldn't expect hardare news this soon, but this presentation was basically pointless.
I wouldn't say it's completely pointless. It was good to hear just how "in it" HP plans on being, with regards to the smartphone market.
at least he could've told us when they plan on announcing new hardware. palm has users jumping ship every second, we have to give them somthing to look forward to.
Come on Grate and Powerful Oz! You step around your shower curtain handing out badges of courage, heart clocks, and diplomas and I get nothing! Come on Toto, we're blowing this big green popsicle stand.
Not even a tease. Hmm.
Is it over? I must have fallen asleep.
That felt like a career day presentation in jr. high.
Hey, it's Ruby-Two-Day!
There's a space in between these devices
We've got great partners
WebOS makes it easy to do apps
Sit tight. We have a roadmap.
Never heard of an iPhone or iPad. What's that?
I'm wearing a black shirt and jeans. Obviously, I know tech.
Just one more thing... I brought some mylar film.
Ugh. Too impatient. Might just be time to switch.
what a let down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who & when is the next HP speaker? Thanks for the transcript!
My forecast is a September announcement of new hardware featuring webOS 2.0 that will be available to purchase within a month.
There are reasons to tease a phone before its release and then there are reasons to stay quiet until the phone is actually available.
Given the lack of widespread 4G coverage, it will likely be a 3G device to keep costs lower, improve margins which would have been a decision that would make sense given Palm's condition prior to the HP acquisition announcement and time in the development pipeline. Native virtual keyboard is likely as well as a gigahertz processor and a larger screen (similar to iPhone). No support for memory cards will continue for cost reasons and to maintain a focus on the cloud.
Stretching here: 2 models. One will be the new flagship product with a hardware keyboard while the other will ditch the keyboard and have less storage, other specs. Everything will have WiFi from now on.
Of course, this is just speculation...... or is it?
It is. :)
I think you're on the mark with your speculation. I also have a feeling that a mediocre device would have been scheduled to replace the Pre and HP may have influenced a pull back for better hardware + software combination in light of the Evo/iPh4 level features.
In the meantime as we get closer to a new device, I suspect we'll all see it coming with a ramp-up in marketing and webOS awareness, combined with a push for applications to feed a tablet and 4G smartphone. We're already seeing the application part with the app sale, PDK improvements in 1.4.5 and Palm lowering the barrier for entry for developers.
This just makes me wanna see if I can try out an evo for a month... le sigh...
Off topic, but...had a billing question w/Sprint Bill--Rep was amazing & straightened everything out. She asked if I had any other questions. I, of course, asked when the next Palm/WebOS phone was coming out. She said she wished she knew as she was a Pre owner, but said the next Sprint 4G phone is about to be officially announced & it is another Android...
the next 4g android is the samsung EPIC. that's not news unfortunately.
http://androidandme.com/2010/06/news/sprint-unveils-samsung-epic-4g/
Are you sure she wasn't talking about the THIRD 4G device? The other poster just says "next", and not "second"...
To continue the off topic, the next 4g for sprint is Samsung Epic. Very similar to EVO, only with a landscape physical keyboard. I was hoping Palm would announce something today so I would have good reason to remain loyal.
I hate to do it, but I might have to take an EPIC for a 30 day spin. Hopefully Palm will announce something before that 30 days is up.
It was the Epic the agent was talking about. When she said it was an Android system phone, I knew right away it wasn't for me (at this time). I will give HP Palm some time, but the clock is ticking.
SHENANIGANS!!!
I hope we aren't waiting for new hardware because webOS 2.0 is under development. My Pre is pretty good, but I'd like some better hardware now that I'm past the 1 yr point - even at the same webOS version. As long as the new hardware will be compatible with webOS 2.0, I'd like to have it now.
I'm actually glad HP didn't announce some new hardware teasers. When J.R. did that in Jan '09 (Pre) and then made us wait 6 months for a Sprint CDMA exclusive, any positive buzz was killed.
So, the fact that HP wants to wait until they have a fully-baked Phone+WebOS 2.0 + delivery plan is a good thing in my book.
Now, that said: they still have to hurry up and get something out to market soon to keep-up with the hardware curve & those craving the 'latest-greatest'.
I agree with this entirely. I'd rather have an announcement and wait a little while, rather than wait an enternity while the competition is already brewing up ways to outdo the new device that hasn't even come out yet.
I'm excited about the next round of WebOS goodness, but I'm feeling kind of patient at the same time. Let's get it right to begin with, and make a huge splash.
still no new anything bummer palm needs to at least announce something anything over a year now not even a hint of a new phone yet pretty lame.people ready to jump ship yet like i did all i can say is palm is the next best thing for mobile gaming next to the iphone so if you like games on your phone android is not the place to be. i would just wait on palm if you like gaming on the phone
I'm far more than disappointed. Not the fact, that there was no announcement today but that no device with up to date hardware will be available in the near future. The Palm Pre was a nice piece of hardware when it was released but it is the fastest aging one as well.
It has so many bugs like loosing data connectivity randomly when switching between 3G and WiFi, getting hot, fast battery drainage, mail application does not work for days without any reason. Missing features like virtual keyboard and bigger screen with higher resolution. And the strongest point to buy a palm was the excellent Sync software. Now I have to live with google and half of my contacts cannot be synced.
Despite all this, the WebOS is great and I need, like many others, a device I can look forward to. But I have the necessity to upgrade my phone to use it as it is the intention of a smartphone. I need a device to interact with friends and the web and my home pc. The cloud should extend my possibilities not restrict them.
can I get a rumor at least? I don't even care if it's true at this point.
I hear from a very reliable source inside Palm that the next webOS device is going to be announced at Mobile Monday in Colorado next week.
But that's only what I heard, can't tell you if it's true or not.
Does that satisfy your thirst? ;)
Best quote of the year 2010:
"[Palm has] got some great plans and some great things coming, so stay tuned."
I guess this shows how out-of-date they are (not only with an 18 month old device), but the fact that almost everyone has DVRs these days. If it ain't on now, you get the channel flipped (perhaps recording it to come back later) on you and you're lucky if the "viewer" will come back...
Are you being serious
Serious? Yes and no. No, in that I don't really mean the whole "out of touch with technology comparison", but yes serious in that if they don't do something soon, even more of their customer base is going to erode.
Their continuation to not announce anything, to me, means one of two things:
First, it could mean they have nothing that they are 100% sure will make it to production and into users hands. If they have nothing right now that fits that bill, that means we are at least 6 months off from getting that in the users hands. That means two years between devices, and awfully slow pace. Yes, Palm was consumed with "acquisition" business for the past several months, but I would assume that would only affect senior management -- engineers should have still be designing, etc.
Second, they do have a device that at the point that Palm considers ready to move into production, but no carrier wants to carry that smartphone. I would assume that a manufacturer would want carrier contracts in place before ramping up production on a new device.
No matter which of these two options is might be, both of these options mean a minimum of 6 months to hardware in user's hands.
Of course their could always be a third (or fourth, fifth, etc.) option which is they have 3 million handsets produced and they are going to announce and release on the same day (or within very close proximity). Not typically how the game is played, but a nice change from business-as-usual would be nice.
Typical HP. They are about consumables and commodity. Not innovation and discovery. Just not their strength.
I have heard rumblings that HP wants to port WebOS on some HTC phones late this year or early next year. The was an HTC video showing an EVO with WebOS on it and an iPhone 4 with WebOS on it. Both still using the front facing camera option... I just can't find where the video was
dude...if that's true, you gotta post that link. We'd all be curious to see how webOS performs on other hardware.
Here's a pic.
http://yfrog.com/j1mt7p
Ok guys...if there would be a hardware announcement it wouldn't be Phil McKinney making it. It would be Jon Rubinstein, Ruby to a lot of us. This was just a coming out party and road map for whats to come. It looks like a fall announcement Sept-Nov in time for the holidays. I have plenty of goodies to hold me. I have two upgrades and I am not going to give them to android or apple. I am waiting.
Ditto to that. I made the incredibly stupid mistake of jumping to Android because I was bored. But I soon regretted that move. Android is so bad. The majority of people who like it are those coming from a flip phone or some other cheap dumb phone. I lasted 3 days on Android and it was a miserable experience and before my Pre I came off of an iPhone, which was the gold standard of pleasant smartphone experiences, albeit quite limited. That said, switching from iPhone to Pre was amazing! To me, now the Pre or at least webOS is the gold standard of mobile experiences and I find it increasingly hard to hear people around me praise Android over and over when they don't even give webOS a try, let alone a real chance. I really hope HP will promote webOS wisely and heavily and maybe it will gain some of the praise I feel it so richly deserves.
Just confirmed it is true. HP is making the move to make WebOS the new Android. HTC and Samsung are supporting this. This makes sense to me because its WebOS that has singlehandedly changed the game. Not the PRE. The last Palm Phone that EVERYONE had was the TREO. But my reliable source says its not about the cellular hardware anymore. HP is serious when they say it's all about the "intellectual property" of WebOS. So we'll be being other companies handle the Hardware. Muchlike the way HTC, Samsung, and Motorola handle it for Android. I think it makes perfect sense.
I mean no disrespect, but I seriously hope your source is wrong. I don't want to see a virtual keyboard dependent device and I sure as hell don't want to see HTC screw with anything Palm has been trying to do. HTC makes some of the worst hardware I have ever seen. Their industrial design is seriously lacking and they can't make a decent keyboard to save their lives. I can't see Palm being ok with them not doing all the ID and controlling the product from start to finish. There is no reason why they can't make a very well designed and now, with the funding of HP, a very high quality device. They just didn't have the money to really make the Pre a quality device. I see no reason why they can't do it now though, without involving HTC or Samsung or any other handset manufacturer.
Your entitled to your opinion, I'm just relaying facts. Hope you don't feel the same about Samsung and/or Motorola. You may just need to strap yourself in. For you it may be a bumpy ride.
Relax. Bruhman is a fries flipping troll with way too much free time.
Yeah, he saw a video with all the major phones running WebOS and nobody here noticed. Santa Claus is doing the build, and Easter Bunny is handling distibution.
You may be correct, but here is the link to HP Wireless Central & it has no mention of Android, HTC, or Samsung
http://www.cellstores.com/mobile/?r=hp
http://yfrog.com/j1mt7p
dude, that link is a mock up, not a real phone or real pic.
And as for outsourcing hardware, that goes against HP's stated goal of controlling the "end to end" user experience. They want to control (make money off of) hardware and software. Google is software company, so they outsource their phones. HP is Hardware and (now with webOS) software, and they are going to want to keep everything in house.
Nice try though! Any other clever "rumors" you wanna make up?
Not really... maybe is a mock-up but the talk of the strategy is definitely authentic. These discussions have been ongoing since last month. Disregard if you want to, but Palm was bought for WebOS. And again I think it's a smart strategy their devising. WebOS kills all other OS's, the money is going to be put into that "intellectual property". The property does not exist with Palm anymore when it comes to Hardware... (if you deny that then you're just in denial). I imagine there are plenty of Hardware Manufacturers that would love to run WebOS instead of Android. Having Palm make another phone that will be outdated by spring, will just be too disappointing ... let others worry about the muscle... let Palm just worry about the brain.
First, that concept is not from HTC. It's just some guy that did this as a personal project. As such, nothing about the HTC road map can be inferred from this concept.
Second, it has nothing to with WebOS. The original concept specifically includes a rework of the Sense UI, making it specific to Android or Windows Mobile.
I know the guy that photoshopped the WebOS interface onto it. He was just playing around..
Here is a link to the original concept including hardware and UI. As you can see, it has dick to do with WebOS.
http://bit.ly/9uO5Gg
Wild speculation:
What if Palm already had hardware manufacturing contracts signed before the HP deal was made. There might be be one final Palm branded, non HP, device released before we see any HP hardware. HP would not be in a hurry to promote, or announce, that device. They'd probably want to sell the minimum required to complete the contract, then get on with the HP hardware.
We've heard Palm's original roadmap was moving forward despite the sale a couple of times.
flash, flash , flash...:-(