Nothing has excited me more in the last couple of years than our acquisition of Palm. While some people can’t make heads or tails of it, I’m sure once you actually try webOS you’ll suddenly realize that we might be onto something.
I am a big believer in the software - and the ecosystem they have...or now I can say we have... over at Palm is pretty compelling. Their biggest challenge were resources and scale, but with HP we plan to address of all of that.
HP has learned a thing or two about acquisitions since 2006. The Voodoo deal started off with massive momentum - and we were later integrated into the larger parts of HP. We did bring in a number of great technologies and ideas into the company, and overall I would say the portfolio has changed for the better. Sure there were challenges, but chalk those up as valuable learning experiences...and Voodoo is still here, just not in the same form it once was. Regardless of where it goes, I promise you that we won’t lose our edge, and we’ll keep pushing the limits to make things slightly uncomfortable for our competitors.
Palm is exciting because HP finally has control over the entire device and developing ecosystem, from hardware to software. I would also argue that webOS is the best mobile operating system out there, and I’m not the only one who thinks this. It’s so slick, and it offers way more flexibility than other mobile operating systems. Take it from someone who has every phone you could possibly imagine or want (including a Vertu and even that B&O Serene). I’ve been around the block, tried them all.
The Palm deal is of huge strategic significance to HP, and we don’t plan on losing the battle.
I will be flying out to the Bay Area in September. You’ll start to hear more from me. In the meantime stay tuned as I will be on webOSroundup later today. If you have questions to ask me please post them on their forum.
