HP Could License WebOS To Other Partners

Today, HP makes Windows-based PCs. You knew that. But what if they start to ship PCs with something other than Windows on them? Five years ago, that question would largely result in laughter, but things are different these days. HP's new CEO already made clear that webOS would start to ship on PCs from HP eventually, but many assumed it would be a virtual layer if anything. But maybe that's not the case, at least in the long term.

Speaking at the recent D9 conference, HP's Leo Apotheker had this to say: "I happen to believe that webOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system. It's not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices. There are all kinds of other people who want to make whatever kind of hardware they make and would like to connect them to the Internet. We'll make it available to enterprises and to SMBs. It will run on lots of HP devices."


In other words, webOS may be the primary OS on some future machines -- that's really hard to imagine today, but who knows what webOS will mature into? Furthermore, HP is suggesting that they could license webOS to other partners, enabling other handset and PC makers other than HP to also use webOS. As it stands, webOS is struggling to gain acceptance in the market, and developer support is lacking. But get webOS on tons of PCs and handsets, that might just turn the tables...