There has always been this strong relationship between HP and Microsoft that will likely continue long after Palm is fully absorbed. Within moments of the breaking news surrounding HP’s buyout of Palm, some were wondering if there was going to be any conflicts between Palm’s webOS platform and their long time partnership with Microsoft’s platform. After a long absence in the US mobile scene, HP stormed back with the iPAQ Glisten which may have been lost among the other Windows Mobile offerings out there. During a conference call today, HP’s VP of Strategy and Corporate Development, Brian Humphries said, “We intend to continue to be a strategic partner for Microsoft. They’re a huge piece of our business today, and will continue to be so.” In fact, it’ll be interesting to see if or how HP will integrate the neat features of webOS into any of their future products. Ultimately, we’re all hoping that HP comes back strong to become a dominant figure in the Windows Phone camp.
via PreCentral

At long last the time has finally arrived after months of speculation surrounding the fate of the one time great smartphone manufacturing company that saw itself at the forefront mobile technology. Of all the companies thrown into the pot considering on buying Palm the last couple of months, it certainly came to a surprise that we didn’t have to look far as HP got themselves a warm portion of the pie. Yes, the world’s dominant PC manufacturer came out of nowhere and bought their long time rival.

After being courted by companies like Lenovo, HTC, and even Huawei, there was no denying that Palm was spiraling downwards faster despite the fact that Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein insisted that the company could survive on its own. The acquisition of Palm surely came in at a minimum cost for the dominant company who is undoubtedly at the top of their game. Buying Palm for a mere $1.2 billion, some would consider HP making out big time on the purchase considering that Palm’s stock was once valued close to $14 per share over a year ago. Under the terms of the merger agreement, current Palm shareholders will be given $5.70 for each share. Although there are some talks right now regarding the future of Palm, Jon Rubinstein looks to stay put with the company while the deal is expected to finally close by July 31.

Almost instantly, HP is catapulted into the limelight and their presence will undoubtedly be felt far and wide as they quickly acquire all of Palm’s assets – which includes their patent portfolio, device hardware, and webOS. So the question left answered is what HP intends to do now that they’ve acquired the venerable smartphone maker? Whichever road they choose to go, we’re sure that HP will utilize the technology that Palm has built up from the ground up and integrate it in a medley of devices ranging from smartphones, tablets, computers, and everything else in between.

Palm’s expertise in touchscreen technology and webOS could become useful for HP as they plan to compete on a grand scale among the premier cell phone manufacturers out there. It’s almost ironic looking back earlier in the decade when HP was one of the companies to back Microsoft’s Pocket PC platform in the hopes of being a clear competitor to Palm’s reign in the PDA market. Ultimately, HP is definitely reinventing themselves with this and we look forward to see how they will be able to translate this purchase into a profitable reign for them.
via Gizmodo

As we reported earlier, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein has said that the company has a plan to become profitable once again, and that he would like Palm to continue to work alone. But while the executive has made it clear that he does not want Palm to be acquired, some other firms have been sniffing around. One of them, Taiwan based HTC, took a look and has decided to pass. The fifth largest global cellphone manufacturer did have some private talks with the webOS developer and decided that an acquisition of Palm would not be right for them. A source close to the situation told Reuters, “There just weren’t enough synergies to take the deal forward.” Another company mentioned as a possible suitor, China’s Huawei, also decided to pass over Palm. According to Investment Bankers, this leaves the world’s fourth largest PC maker, Lenovo, as a potential bidder. The company at the end of last year had $2.9 billion in its coffers, enough to finance a buy out of Palm, which could run in the range of $1.5-$3.0 billion. One banker wondered what exactly a winning bidder would be buying. “What are you buying – a good operating system?” he said. “It’s a wounded brand.” In the quarter that ended February 26th, Palm sold only 408,000 units of its webOS devices, less than the 600,000 estimated by analysts. Lenovo had a cellphone unit which it sold to concentrate on computers, then bought it back last year. It has produced a model for the Chinese market but needs a product for the U.S. market which is the world’s largest based on the number of users. Lenovo is no stranger to big deals, having purchased IBM’s PC business 5 years ago.
source: Reuters

Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein shot down all of the takeover theories that have circulated around the company in the last few weeks. The exec points to the $592 million in cash that Palm has and says that the money will give Palm some breathing space to keep going forward. While that is a lot of dough, to put it in perspective, Apple has $40 billion in cash and short term investments on its balance sheet which gives them the ability to consider an $8 billion purchase of ARM as we reported yesterday. Rubinstein says that Palm has a pipeline of great phones in development although no details were forthcoming from the executive. He did say that Palm does have a plan to follow to return to profitability. The CEO added that the company is open to licensing the well received webOS operating system or forming a “strategic alliance” with another company. Recent rumors have linked Palm to buyout offers from China’s Huawei and Taiwan based HTC. Even though he says that Palm can survive alone, Rubinstein did tell the financial paper that he would take a look at being acquired if all other options fail. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets believe that the company-with a current market cap of $820 million, could attract bids of $2-3 billion based on the attractiveness of webOS to another manufacturer.
source:FinancialTimes via electronista

Running on time as planned, the latest version of the Facebook app for webOS is now available as planned. Even though most of the new features seen with Facebook v1.2 have been available as part of a free beta, those who prefer to grab the real thing and not dabble in betas can quickly download the app from the App Catalog. The biggest thing to finally come around is the new Facebook notifications – which seamlessly pops up unobtrusively as you’re running some other application. Additionally, the update adds support for Facebook videos, keyboard shortcuts, and other items. Since it first came onto the scene, the webOS Facebook app has seen its fair share of transformation to ultimately come down to its most polished form now – which really improves the overall experience.
via Palm Infocenter

Palm’s Plus models are coming, Palm’s Plus models are coming – to France too that is. Both the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are saying bonjour to France’s SFR starting on April 27th through their web site while customers can look forward to seeing it in stores by May 11. It looks as though Palm’s Plus handsets are slowly infiltrating Europe with the hopes of seeing them being gobbled up by customers that prefer a slightly more beefed up webOS experience. Although Germany was seen to be given the thumbs up for both devices, the people of France will also be taking in the pleasures of seeing both handsets become available shortly. Palm’s chairman and chief executive officer, Jon Rubinstein said about the launch, “We are excited to bring the Palm webOS experience to France for the first time so SFR customers can benefit from the unique ability to use natural gestures to switch easily between multiple open applications and always stay up to date. With the choice of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus phones, customers across France can stay connected so they never miss a thing.” While the company may seem optimistic and upbeat about the launch, there is still a growing sense of anxiety in the background that’ll undoubtedly be looked on as Palm’s future is still uncertain.
source: Palm

Now that webOS 1.4 had been readily available, there was a new security flaw that was recently uncovered which showed how an unsuspecting webOS owners still running an older build of the platform could get hacked via SMS. Simply by using text messaging, owners could potentially be at serious risk if they are still running webOS 1.3.5 for some apparent reason. Due to the fact that many of its applications are written with HTML, JavaScript, and other web standards, the text messaging client in webOS was acting a bit naughty by not executing input/output validation on messages being sent to it – which ultimately led to an HTML injection bug. Fortunately though webOS 1.4 corrects the problem, but for anyone who is still running the older build, just contemplate what you could be getting yourself into by not upgrading.
via UberGizmo

The saga continues with Palm as they are doing whatever they can to attract developers and stay in competition among the other platforms. Although Palm’s App Catalog pales in comparison to what the App Store or even BlackBerry App World has to offer, they are aggressively trying to get developers on board by waiving their usual $99 fee which is required for developers to publish their apps. That membership fee would allow them to distribute webOS applications, manage apps online, and includes a community membership. As much as this might sound like something set in stone for good, Palm is only doing this for a short time to see what kind of outcome would occur by this move. If there is a drastic change in the amount of developers on board, they would most likely keep steady by waiving the fee. If not, then it would revert back seeing that it’d be somewhat unforgiving if they could somehow profit from it. All in all, developers most likely won’t hesitate to get their apps into the App Catalog due to the fact that the fee has been waived – so hopefully it’ll spur some quality apps that were never given a chance to see day light.
via MobileCrunch

Facebook for webOS had a humble beginning which has slowly butterflied into a versatile app that rivals some of the ones seen on other platforms. At first it could’ve been argued that the app was at first a similar version of their web app, but it has gone through some transformations with version 1.2 expected to hit the App Catalog some time next week; according to its Facebook page. There will be plenty to look forward to in this version as it brings along some enhancements like notifications, the ability to play Facebook video, speed enhancements, keyboard shortcuts to lessen the load on yourself, and many more things – actually, you can simply experience it now by checking out the beta version that’s currently available. Even though the future is still uncertain for the continuation of webOS, it’s nice to see that the developer is committing in offering the best level of experience for Facebook on the platform.
source: Facebook via PreCentral

Here in the US, we’ve have been treated to nothing but CDMA based Palm Pre units while those who call GSM their home are still waiting for the good news to come out of AT&T. Those GSM customers can take the plunge ahead of time with by purchasing a permanent SIM unlock fix for the original GSM version of the Palm Pre which is developed by jictechnology. Although you may have to resort to the slightly less than stellar specs of the original GSM Palm Pre and not the bumped up ones seen on the Palm Pre Plus, it should suffice some people out there who just can’t wait any longer for the webOS powered device to make landfall with AT&T. There are various pricing plans being offered, but a single unlock code will only cost £ 25.00 – which should be more than justifiable enough seeing that you’ll be able to use the handset on just about any network. The great thing about this unlocked solution is that it won’t be affected by any future webOS software updates which was seen to cause some problems with the arrival of webOS 1.4.
source: PreCentral