
One word
Apps
The webOS smartphone platform may be dead at HP, but a group of volunteers hopes to see it rise from its ashes by bringing a new device using the OS to market within the next three years. Calling itself Phoenix International Communications, after the legendary reincarnating bird, the group says its goal is "to assist in the …
Exactly. I booted my dual boot touchpad into WebOS for the first time in months the other day and was like wow I forgot how neat WebOS is and then being a Sunday immediately realized no Sunday Ticket (american) football app and promptly booted back into Android where I can actually find apps worth downloading.
Web browser.
How often do you fire up a native application on your desktop machine to access Internet services? very infrequently I expect. Email, maybe some IM client perhaps.
Apps are great for making use of the limited UI and screen size on phones, but on a tablet using the web isn't so bad.
With Android being used by almost all of the major manufacturers and some of then have signed up for Bada as well, I'm wondering if in the future if the manufacturers are going to allow you to change the OS. I expect some of the manufacturers that signed up for Bada will also offer Sailfish OS phones. It would be easy to include WebOS in those plans too.
Everybody's trying to get a new OS on cellphones right now, and against the Apple and Android juggernaughts, it's an uphill battle, even for long time players like RIM. (Note that Palm went bust trying it with this same OS.)
Even a powerhouse like Microsoft, with billions to throw at it, is struggling to get back on the phones.
Try getting a "hobby OS" version running on PCs first, then try to get some low level manufacturers putting it on cheap tablets and netbooks (Cheapy handhelds are a surprisingly large, and unspoken segment of the market at the moment), then aim at phones when there's more traction.
Better to be perceived as the cheap/low end alternative than fade away tilting at windmills.
Windows Phone 8 sales are pretty good thanks. Plus developer registrations are/were 1,500 a day since the "build 2012" show.
4.2 million since Oct isn't bad for a "failing platform" given the exclusivity deals in place for the Nokia 920.
http://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-has-sold-4-2-million-windows-phone-8-handsets-according-to-facebook-data-10260224/
To be fair, though, iOS will still be stuck at the interface it has had since the beginning since (a) it's perfect and (b) Apple have patented themselves into a corner and can't make any changes now. By 2016 it will be a real clunker.
I've spent the past three days using a borrowed iPad Mini, and I have been struck firstly by how smoothly it works and second by how dreadfully limited it feels even in comparison with my year old Galaxy Tab 10.1 (which I don;t like much, by the way). The Apple model of limited functionality which works well is going to have problems if and when Android manages to add equivalent reliability to its far better interface.
... they will come.
Yeah, that doesn't always apply, but sell them cheaply enough with basic functionality (web browsing mainly) to keep the less demanding users happy, and there are plenty of developers out there eager to cash in. If it's easy enough to write the apps, they will happen.