Will ‘Return of the WebOS’ play in 2013?

Broadband Expert just wrote about Meg Whitman’s announcement concerning the WebOS operating system.  She revealed to the world that HP’s OS was going to be converted to an open-source project.

Meg also said that HP was definitely out of the smartphone business for good.  On top of that, she told everyone that HP did not plan to make any hardware for WebOS.

HP does plan to re-introduce tablets in 2012.  However they will not be running WebOS.  They will be running the Microsoft Windows 8 platform.

This makes sense, as HP has always had Microsoft-friendly hardware from laptops to heavy duty workstations and everything in between.  It would take a lot of work to develop a parallel line of WebOS hardware.

HP’s stance was that other manufacturers would spring to the market once the open-source WebOS attracted more developers. HP then clarified their previous remarks and said they would be looking at getting back into the WebOS tablet market.

Come the following year, 2013, you can expect a new WebOS-based tablet.

I think that is a pretty bold move considering the failure of their latest tablet’s failure to penetrate the market.  Maybe HP is hoping that a Windows 8 tablet will open up the marketplace for a rebirth of the WebOS tablet.

My advice to HP (I know if they would take my advice, I would be either on their board or in their product development group) is: Attract the developers to make WebOS apps or even develop a translator that runs Android apps under WebOS.  The first option is a lot better than the later, as I happen to remember a PC emulator program that ran on a VAX 750 and it didn’t do too well.

Do you think ‘Return of the WebOS’ will be playing in 2013?