HP's Palm division is making a big announcement on Wednesday, and the company plans to show off its new line of WebOS devices. The company hasn't produced much in the way of WebOS gadgets since HP absorbed Palm last year; all we've seen is the lackluster Palm Pre 2. So this week's event is freighted with expectation as we all try to figure out what HP really wants to do with Palm's once-groundbreaking technology.
WebOS still has a lot of goodwill in the tech world. It was innovative enough in 2009 to get our Technical Excellence award, and its user interface is still compelling. It has a decent collection of apps, easy and powerful APIs, and a great overall feel. What WebOS lacks is current devices that run the operating system.
HP executives have said all along that they want to spread WebOS across a wide range of devices including tablets, printers, and PCs; smartphones are often mentioned as well, but as sort of an afterthought. A brief teaser video released last week didn't reveal much. Here's what we think we might see at Wednesday's gathering. We'll have a full live blog here on PCMag starting at 1 p.m. ET Wednesday.
There will be tablets. A few weeks ago, Engadget revealed that HP was working on two WebOS tablets: a 9-inch model and a 7-inch model. Both devices have 1.2Ghz processors, the blog said. After the leak, HP sent out a note saying "Think you saw the latest on Engadget? Think again."
There will also probably be a phone. HP's invitation encourages us to both "think big" and "think small," and my survey of industry contacts says there will probably be some sort of phone at the event. There almost has to be; the Pre and Pixi are looking quite long in the tooth and the Palm Pre 2 seems to be a non-starter. I had a hands-on with it back in October, and it still hasn't come to market with a U.S. carrier. HP/Palm needs a phone to bring WebOS back into the popular mind.
Cloud computing services may play a role. New HP CEO Leo Apotheker is a services guy, and HP recently made a big announcement about enterprise cloud computing. WebOS has always been a "cloud-oriented" OS, so new Web services accessible from both WebOS devices and PCs would fit with HP's current trajectory.
Will there be netbooks? We've speculated that HP may use WebOS as a secondary or pre-boot environment for Windows PCs, or as an OS all by itself for a line of low-cost netbooks. Netbooks running anything other than Windows haven't taken off, though, including HP's own Android-powered Compaq Airlife 100, so it's hard to see why HP would consider a WebOS netbook to be a good idea.
We'll be live at HP's "Think Beyond" Palm announcement in San Francisco. HP isn't providing a video feed, so tune in to our live blog at PCMag.com at 1 p.m. EST tomorrow for up-to-the-minute coverage and photos from the event.
What do you think is coming at the HP/Palm Think Beyond event?