HP doesn't know what to do with webOS and decided to sell off their inventory at a blazing $100-150. I finally picked one up after they've been so hard to find since, and have been geeking on for a few hours with it.
Much like I saw with the original Pre in July '09, I can see some potential in this OS. The hardware isn't quite as refined and solid as Apple's, and the UI on webOS is still sluggish at times, but the germ of an amazing competitor is there, there's just no company out there that can execute on it like Apple does.
The multitasking UI is just as good as it was when it was introduced, which is still better than how any other mobile OS does it. Notifications are a little different than on webOS-based phones -- they appear as an icon in the top right status bar. Still better than any other.
It's a shame both companies that have tried pushing webOS devices have come up with too little, too late. If these devices were all released just maybe a year or so earlier, this thing would have taken off and gave Apple a run for its money. But because Apple was quicker to the draw with the innovative UI, and focused more on what was important (responsiveness, fluid UI interaction, ecosystem), they got the loot. It's almost as if the roles were reversed. Apple today in tablets and smartphones is like what Microsoft is to desktop PCs. Android is catching up in the phone market by sheer force, but so far in my impressions is the last in the list of user experience.
webOS definitely could be the best basic smartphone/tablet user experience if the UI were hardware accelerated so that it were smooth, and had the time been taken for fit and finish instead of wasting time getting gobbled up by HP. It's only the app selection that ends up being the elephant in the room. Well, and marketing. Those first Pre commercials in '09 probably contributed some to its failure to take hold.
Much like I saw with the original Pre in July '09, I can see some potential in this OS. The hardware isn't quite as refined and solid as Apple's, and the UI on webOS is still sluggish at times, but the germ of an amazing competitor is there, there's just no company out there that can execute on it like Apple does.
The multitasking UI is just as good as it was when it was introduced, which is still better than how any other mobile OS does it. Notifications are a little different than on webOS-based phones -- they appear as an icon in the top right status bar. Still better than any other.
It's a shame both companies that have tried pushing webOS devices have come up with too little, too late. If these devices were all released just maybe a year or so earlier, this thing would have taken off and gave Apple a run for its money. But because Apple was quicker to the draw with the innovative UI, and focused more on what was important (responsiveness, fluid UI interaction, ecosystem), they got the loot. It's almost as if the roles were reversed. Apple today in tablets and smartphones is like what Microsoft is to desktop PCs. Android is catching up in the phone market by sheer force, but so far in my impressions is the last in the list of user experience.
webOS definitely could be the best basic smartphone/tablet user experience if the UI were hardware accelerated so that it were smooth, and had the time been taken for fit and finish instead of wasting time getting gobbled up by HP. It's only the app selection that ends up being the elephant in the room. Well, and marketing. Those first Pre commercials in '09 probably contributed some to its failure to take hold.
