Andre Yoskowitz
29 Aug 2011 22:26
In April 2010, HP purchase Palm, along with webOS and all of the company's patents for $1.2 billion, stopping the struggling phone maker from an imminent bankruptcy.
Two weeks ago, HP admitted failure and announced they would not be building any more devices with webOS, while at the same time liquidating their current inventory, which included Palm Pre phones and TouchPad tablets.
At the same time, Google purchased Motorola Mobility in a shock $12.5 billion move, which has scared current smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, LG and HTC who are afraid the acquired company could be given favorable advantage with the Android operating system.
Today, the rumor is that Samsung may be looking to buy webOS, while scaling down its Android offerings and keeping its current Bada offerings steady. Samsung has sold 3.5 million Bada devices this year, so far.
The move certainly makes sense given the uncertainty in the Android world and HP's (likely) hopes to unwind the OS to the highest bidder.