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HP To Release webOS Printers?

By: , 9/30/2011 12:32 pm | 34 comments

As if this day couldn’t get any more weird from a webOS perspective.  First we had the rumor/speculation/insider tip that HP was getting ready to sell webOS to Amazon, now comes this tidbit from Pocket-Lint:

A HP spokesperson has exclusively told Pocket-lint that the company is to incorporate the supposedly dead webOS into its printers.

A HP spokesperson has exclusively told Pocket-lint that the company is to incorporate the supposedly dead webOS into its printers.

“HP is currently investigating using WebOS on its Designjet range of professional printers,” HP told Pocket-lint at the HP Impact event in Dublin.

This is supposed to happen late this year, or early next year, fulfilling the prophecy of Mark “Say Hello to my Little Friend” Hurd who said, “Beyond smart phones [you will see it go] into form factors such as slates and web-connected printers”.   We just didn’t realize at the time that “beyond smartphones” actually meant “After we discontinue them”. [You can say that again.... No wait, don't say that again - Ed]

There are implications to this little story though.  Just something to ponder – If HP intends to release webOS on printers, why are they contemplating selling webOS to Amazon?  If you ask us, one of these two stories do not make much sense [nothing new with HP - Ed] .  More on that as these stories develop – if they develop.

Source: Pocket-Lint.com

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About Adam Doud

Family Man, @DeadTechnology, webOS Ambassador, Geocacher, Baseball/Hockey Fan, All around geek with unrequited love for webOS. Treo 650 -> Centro -> PrePlus -> Pre2 -> Veer -> Pre2 -> Morris, the Panda-Veer -> Andre the Pre3 Co-host to the ChicagowebOSMeetup group - @ChiwebOSMeetup
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  • PalmOn

    Well, with past HP and Palm logic, here goes….. If Amazon ran webos on their tablets, then instead of reading ebooks on the screens of their tablets themselves, one could wirelessly print our the entire book onto paper via an HP webos printer, and then read it on paper, printed on HP ink. Now what do you think of that? Genius!

    • Dutch

      Damn, I hate it when you say something truly funny. But, that, as you say, is HP genius.

    • http://www.twitter.com/drmiami DrMiami

      I like your idea, but alas, I think it is too complicated for the schmucks at HP. They wouldn’t know a fabulous OS unless they paid out the arse for it. Oh, ya, and even then they still were/are unable to get it off. I’ll bet the execs all use dumbarse Crackberry’s. They have no idea how stupid they’ve behaved. I hope Amazon & HTC couple & have a beautiful full-grown webOS.

    • Dodgerfan

      I’d rather purchase a Kindle than $80 of ink and paper so that my book could be carried away with me.  The economics of printing books at home can’t possibly hold up anymore.

  • Zfirthy

    Can someone tell me what to make of all this?? First amazon, now printers! Ahhhhh
    – sent from webOSroundup XL

    • http://twitter.com/DeadTechnology DeadTechnology

       In a word, No.  At least not yet.

  • Raun

    Hp may as well use webos while it owns the license to do so. They’ve wasted enough time NOT incorporating this IP into stuff they DO do (printers) as opposed to stuff they DON’T do (phones & tablets).

    • Bassace

      webOS is in the 8600 plus and 8600 premium. They are even advertising that you can use gestures on the touchscreen.

      • Dutch

        Does it mean I’ll be able to play Angry Birds while waiting for my copies? Totally makes up for a lack of replacement for my Pre-.

  • Brother Al

    I think that, combined with rumor, it’s likely another case of HP’s piss-poor internal-external communication. Their left hand has no idea what the right hand is doing, & the brains are high on crack… so every part of HP is doing it’s own thing, somewhat unaware or not caring what goes on elsewhere…

  • mau

    Big companies like HP are akin to a huge locomotive… it takes miles and miles to stop products that are currently in progress, so sometimes while a part of the company has been axed or sold off, other parts of the company havent even left the station yet.

  • tt92618

    Nothing like spending billions of dollars for a fancy UI on your printers to stoke investor confidence.

  • http://AToTheT.org/ Ajay

    Why would amazon dump their new android tablet for webos? Their own android app store et al. That doesnt make sense at all.

    • http://twitter.com/palmused palmuse

      I agree.

  • Guest

    A webOS printer just doesn’t make sense.

    • Wedipsettin

      they don’t know how else to make use of the OS! They are brainless!

  • James

    Oh look more money I WILL not be spending on HP products ever again.
    – sent from webOSroundup XL

  • Rudsaki

    WebOS on printers was common knowledge from the beginning….

    • tt92618

      That doesn’t mean it is a good idea, however.  WebOS on printers, as the sort of idiot cousin to its tablet and phone brethren, made a little more sense.  WebOS – after BILLIONS of dollars in investment – as a pretty (but ultimately empty) face to some anemic printing hardware… makes a lot LESS sense.

  • Malette

    I think it was apparent that HP wanted webOS for printers. Why I say waste it only on printers? Perhaps Amazon deal will dictate they remain rights for printer use. Why wouldn’t they want to partner like this. Amazon builds tablets and hopefully phones and HP builds their printers. Could be a good partnership. Now on another note, I’m tired of hearing webOS is dead. I would say it’s stagnant, but by no means dead., not yet.

    • tt92618

      I find it difficult to believe that (even) HP would be so idiotic as to think that a pretty UI is worth billions of dollars to acquire.  No, when they acquired it, they (or more specifically their CEO) had a grand vision of where it would go.  But the board squashed him, then the remnants of that vision, and now they are trying to figure out what to do with this WebOS thingy.  That pretty much sums it up, so far as I can see.

      And yes, WebOS IS dead.  If all it winds up being is an OS for a printer, it is dead and gone.

      Hey, there is this place I went shopping at a while back and it had a great big bear leaping up and roaring.  Some time back, someone had shot it, ripped its guts out, and stuffed.  Looks real nice – just like it did before… but I think you’d be hard pressed to argue that it is still alive.

      That’s what HP will have to do to WebOS to get it work as a printer OS; they’ll have to rip its insides out, replace them with something much less capable, and leave the pretty face.  And no matter how you cut it, that’s dead, regardless of how it looks.

      • Malette

        Are you related to palmon? No really though, did you just defend Leo? I don’t think he had any intentions of making webOS hardware. First of all he was a software guy who was trying to make HP be a software company. So I think he did purchase it as he was trying to with any other software he could. I for one believe a lot if not just about all success and failure falls on the CEO. You need to know what your talking about, be confident, give clear direction, stand by your words so think before you speak. All which Leo failed to follow. Let us take Amazon for example they have gutted and re worked android so much that folks claim it doesn’t even seem android, but it is and it can be reworked to be android as was again. So once again I find your analogy to be out of place. It isn’t really death just reworking to fit the specified needs. The other pieces can still be refitted when and if needed.

        • tt92618

          I was referring to Hurd.  Were you under the impression that Leo was behind the acquisition of palm?  If so, you are mistaken.  The Palm acquisition was Hurd’s baby.  The board ousted Hurd, then squashed what was left of the vision he had.  Leo had zero to do with the acquisition, and did not buy the vision… and my impression is that he simply executed (poorly) on the board’s vision of HP’s future.  The Palm acquisition and the grand vision of all that WebOS could become all happened before Leo was on the scene.

          I’m sorry – I don’t mean to be a downer for you, but your analogy is just off.  If I gut your Harley so that you don’t need a license to drive it (50cc motor), then it doesn’t matter how much it still looks like a Harley, it isn’t one – it’s just a fancy looking moped.  And yeah, someone can come along later and undo all the modifications I did… but there is a really good chance that in doing all that I just destroyed the market value of the whole thing, and I’ll have a hard time selling it to anyone should I decide to do so.  And by the time I get to that point anyway, maybe nobody wants that bike anyway… now they all want the fancy shmancy new hover bikes.  A poor analogy perhaps, but I trust you get my drift.  Years of languishing as a printer OS guarantees that whatever webOS was, it will be far obsolete by the time HP is done with it, and it will have lost its developer base, too… or were you thinking that there would be an edition of Angry Birds for OfficeJet XP9000JYZ? ;-)  So who, exactly, is going to want that?

          I build software for a living, so I may have some perspective here that you lack.  My view is that if HP proceeds to use WebOS as a glorified printer U and that’s all they do with it, then they will have dealt it the final blow.  Whatever that thing winds up being, it won’t be WebOS.  Pretty much the only thing that can save WebOS now is an acquisition by someone with the vision, capability, desire, and means to use it for what it was intended.  Anything else is just going to be a huge failure in ROI.

          • Malette

            I understand palm purchase was under Hurd, but Leo took the reigns during it’s peak time. I also understand that a harley with a moped motor loses value, but not all worth. The body is still worth something. It’s like a classic car sure a lot of people now want a new car with bells and whistles, but there are many still who would love a restored old mustang or impala. So therefore there are bodys in rusty shape with no engine selling for thousands. Why? Because the value in what once was is still there. I in no way disagree as a printer ui it will lose more value than HP has already cost it. My point only is 2 things. 1. As a convert to a printer system it does not mean webOS is all gone, and 2. WebOS is not dead. First off it hasn’t been years of being a printer ui yet and second you have said only thing that could save it is…. so therefore stating it isn’t dead. I just feel it’s at an impass in a stagnant state. Like a person in a coma perhaps, but not dead. They may pull through and end up braindead (a printer ui?) or they may make a full recovery (new webOS hardware?) who knows. Besides who knows angry birds is all over the place and what office printer person wouldn’t want to play while they wait for all those sheets to print. :)

  • Wedipsettin

    I HATE HP! I hope the run out of business… I will never buy HP product unless it’s a webos mobile device! F*#K you HP n the idiots whom run the company! Palm didn’t have the money to a make better device, HP doesn’t have the brain!

  • Scotland

    HP has said from the beginning they were going to have webOS on printers, so this is not a surprise.  HP actually released an Android printer after purchasing Palm, so webOS would just replace Android on that with similar use-cases, I imagine.  Even if HP sells webOS, they will probably negotiate for a permanent license for it (similar to the deal Palm made with Access for PalmOS).
    http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/12/hp-photosmart-estation-c510-printer-android-tablet-now-on-sale/

    Interesting that HP has decided to spin-off PCs but is NOT considering the same thing for printers.  If anything, in the long term, I can imagine PCs being reinvented as tablets or convertibles like the Asus Transformer.  On the other hand, in the long run, as tablet use goes up, screen size goes up, and devices get inexorably thinner/lighter, I forsee that the need to print documents is going to crash.  We will have eReaders/Tablets/displays around us everywhere just waiting to be used as output for our wireless connected devices (imagine pairing your mobile device with multiple screens similar to the manner you can do this today with audio output devices).

  • MicahR

    I know they wanted it to go in everything, so here’s a little suggestion I made. Of course if this was really available in a vehicle I would be the first to crash while trying to get free apps.

    • MicahR

      Never mind, it looks like the image thing doesn’t work.

  • Abe

    My love for webOS is making my head explode everytime I read an article….

    • Malette

      Wonder if we could sue HP for making your head explode and my heart hurt. Pain and suffering severence? Lol, ahhh! It is hard to take a lot of this twisted messed up puzzle. Too bad they’ve already managed to take a lot of the companys’ value down so don’t think we would get much.

      • Abe

        Then yesterday I received their developer news letter and it said that at one of the webOS Connect events they gave out free TouchPads and on it they point out that a dev went on stage and screamed “Long live webOS!” The problem is that freaking HP is killing webOS!!! 

        Making my head explode in confusion…. o.O

  • http://twitter.com/palmused palmuse

    Has anyone here used a printer with a Graphical User Interface? I do at work. Using webOS as the GUI does make some sense for printers. It is good looking, functional and eliminates the need for a limited, physical UI. I can easily see how it would work. Having said that, it would only make sense if it was an extension of a better overall employment of webOS. There is so much potential with a full OS like this that it boggles the mind. HP should just let the geniuses that recognize this go with it.

  • Brother Al

    You can have all the smartest people in the world, but like anything, you are only as good as your weakest link… In HPs case, they “released” (see laid off & chased out), a lot of their talent & porked their free bonus (active user base & Dev network).
    MEG has her work cut outfor her… Right now, HP may end taking on a strategy like Sunbeam was forced to… Once the largest maker of home goods, mismanaged into a chinese-made crap brand, now focusing on only a handful of select products.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3AKDW42PEWHJP5DYQZXF7HECZE KW

    webOS on a printer? Makes sense if you envision the printer as more than just an output device. ‘Printer’ as a home server – modem/router/NAS/ scanner/printer – the potential is there. Think about it.