During today’s WebOS event in San Francisco, HP executives announced that beyond releasing a tablet (the TouchPad) and two new smarphones (the Veer and the larger Pre) running the operating system, the company would soon be shipping PC with running WebOS.
Beyond the actual announcement, HP executives didn’t provide much detail about this potential bombshell. But as ZDNet’s Sam Diaz wrote:
“But the message was loud and clear - and I can’t help but think that it was so loud that it sent shockwaves through some glass offices some 800 miles away in Redmond, Washington.”
It seems that HP may be trying to become the mass-market Apple–blending its own hardware and software into a seamless experience.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Microsoft that should be concerned. IT departments will now have yet another desktop operating system to support, or at least consider supporting. Developers will have yet another platform to build for. And, malware creators will have yet another system to target.
I realize it may be too early to know whether WebOS on the desktop will be a positive or negative for IT. Who knows, it many not even happen. But if it does, IT won’t be able to ignore it.
