In a surprise announcement today, Google confirmed they were going to develop the webOS mobile operating system – the critically praised, but ultimately abandoned project created by Palm Inc., before being sold, then cancelled by HP in it’s recent turbulent period.
Rumours of another big silicon Valley purchase were scotched by Sundar Pichai, Google’s Senior vice President responsible for Android.
“The fact of the matter is that the system has been open sourced. We don’t need to buy it and our experience with Android and other projects means we’re very comfortable in the Open-source space.”
The obvious question of course, is, “What about Android?”. Google’s current system runs the majority of smart phones as well as tablets, Smart TV systems, game consoles and some other niches systems. In response Pichai, Senior vice President responsible for Android denied that the current system would be dropped.
“Android’s not going away, but Google has always believed in being a disruptive force in the marketplace. Along with our competitors, we have faced criticism for taking some of the ideas from webOS, but not implementing them as well, so we decided to go to the source and start from a leading position. We think webOS can benefit from closer integration with Google services. We will be extending work to run existing Android apps on the system until more native apps are developed and integrating services such as search and maps tightly into the ‘Just type’ system.
Industry insiders claim that Google had long been eyeing the once ill-fated system. They were quick to hire the original UI designer, Mattias Duarte and were shocked when electronics giant LG snubbed the Google TV system in favour of a customised webOS for TVs they developed themselves. Though it’s an open question on how popular smart TVs will be, LG’s effort in this interface have been praised. Our source remarked, “With Samsung trialing Tizen, when LG produce a product of this quality, Google take notice – they don’t want to be left behind. They consider it better to work with the main producer of their Nexus devices & with webOS, it’s a win-win – especially when synergy conduits are routed through adwords”.
As always, pivotCE will be here to report on future amazing developments. Watch this space!
