The sad saga of the son of Palm Pilot (webOS)

[Molly K]

As I was updating some content for Week 1, I found the development and
ultimate failure of Palm's webOS device suite very interesting and a
little sad. Palm was one of the forerunners in the development pre-
smartphone mobile devices. Here's what happened when they tried to
adapt:

January 2009 - WebOS introduced by Palm as successor to Palm OS
(e.g.: the Palm Pilot)
Summer 2009: Palm Pre released (you may remember the commercial with
the surreal/creepy blonde girl)
April 2010 - Palm sells webOS to Hewlett-Packard for $1.2 billion
Spring 2011 – More webOS phones released with lackluster reviews
August 2011 – HP discontinues phones (they never see US release,
though some were rumored to be on ebay)
December 2011 – webOS contributed to open source community, $99 “fire
sale” of HP TouchPad (tablet similar to iPad)

So what happened? A February 10, 2012 article on Engadget muses: “All
in all, the Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad proved to be part of webOS's
demise. While each device is lovable, capable and quirky, the
combination wasn't enough to protect the venerable platform from the
onslaught of Android and iOS. “

For more info:
HP Veer 4G, Pre 3 and TouchPad celebrate a melancholy birthday
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/hp-veer-4g-pre-3-and-touchpad-celebrate-a-melancholy-birthday/

HP: webOS to live on through open source, hardware lineup still dead
(for now)
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/09/hp-webos-to-live-on-through-open-source-hardware-lineup-still/