PC World ? Are major phone companies preparing to ditch the Android mobile operating system?
Its an interesting question. Samsung recently introduced a new line of Wave phones using its own Bada operating system, and word out this week is that Taiwan-based HTC might be looking to move in a similar direction, perhaps by purchasing WebOS from HP. On August 18, HP announced that it was discontinuing its WebOS line of devices, including the HP TouchPad tablet and the yet-to-be-released HP Pre 3 smartphone.
The companies may have started to worry about Android after learning last month that Google purchased one of their main competitors, Motorola. Since creating Android, Google has rotated manufacturers with which to issue new software updates, releasing the code to others about six months later.
Google may risk alienating the manufacturers, but Carolina Milanesi, research vice president for Gartner, told PCWorld last month that "all these vendors have invested so much in the platform, they won't quickly walk away from it."
Background
Samsung released its first Bada-based phone in 2010, long before the Google-Motorola deal. Most reactions to Bada--and the Samsung Wave phones that run it--have been favorable, including PCWorld's impressions (we got some hands-on time with the first Samsung Wave). Newer Wave phones are expected this month.
The Wave OS is clean, easy to use, and open source, and Samsung now has its own Bada app store up and running. The specs for Wave phones are also appealing, including Super AMOLED screens, HD video recording capabilities, and nimble Hummingbird processors. However, so far, phones running Bada have not been available in the United States.
HTC is much farther behind in the mobile OS game, but company chair Cher Wang told the Chinese press this week that internal discussions at HTC have focused on the possibility of acquiring WebOS. Wang remained cagey, though, about how important it is to HTC to possess its own operating system. "We can use any OS we want. We are able to make things different from our rivals in the second or third layer of a platform," Wang said, referring to HTC's Sense interface.
If HTC or another phone maker were to purchase and revive WebOS, it could have at least a small but loyal base of Palm fans to fall back on. HP purchased Palm in 2010 and turned the mobile platform into the basis for a line of products.
Last month, Samsung upped the ante on Bada, announcing a new series of Wave phones that will ship with Bada 2.0. The OS revision reportedly also comes with full multitasking, near-field communication capability, and ChatON, Samsung's new cross-OS group-messaging service.
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