Earlier today, we unveiled three new webOS products and shared our vision for how HP webOS will intelligently connect a broad range of devices across your digital universe. The invited guests who shared the stage with the HP team give you a sense of just how diverse that universe is: Jeffrey Katzenberg (CEO of Dreamworks), Jimmy Iovine (Chairman, Interscope, Geffen, A&M), Randall Rothenberg (Chief Digital Officer, Time Inc.), and in the audience tennis superstar Serena Williams.
This evening, we had another gathering for a different part of the webOS community: our developers. The over 500 webOS developers in attendance had the chance to hear about how the HP will be helping them build and market the apps to run on all of those web-connected devices.
In addition to an overview of Enyo and other tools for webOS app development, those in attendance also heard about another key part of the strategy for growing and helping the developer community succeed: Richard Kerris, HP’s new VP/Head of Worldwide Developer Relations for webOS.
Richard comes to HP most recently from LucasFilm where, as Chief Technology Officer, he found innovative ways to leverage technology developed internally across the various LucasFilm business units, such as Industrial Light & Magic and LucasArts. Leading the team that engages with the developer community for all webOS devices, he defines his goal as “nurturing the passion that’s been sparked by webOS while helping developers find ways to thrive by engaging with the many different opportunities that HP can create for them.”
Richard faced a similar challenge earlier in his career when he led the team that helped developers migrate to OS X. But he sees the opportunity with webOS a little differently: "I'm excited about the potential for this growing ecosystem of devices. The road will be tough at times, but the payoff will be huge -- and we'll get there by listening to and working with our developers."
Echoing that philosophy of putting the developer first, the gathering was decorated with a series of posters each of which was inspired by a different webOS app. Developers who'd like their own copy of this whimsical and inspiring artwork can get in touch with devmarketing@palm.com.
Jon Zilber
Can I make a somewhat simple suggestion ?
HP should find the top 500 apps on the competing app stores, and pay those developers to port their apps to WebOS.
Posted by: Ron Joffe | February 10, 2011 at 06:02 AM
can anyone say class action lawsuit for promising webos 2.0 and now saying they won't be giving the update how about promising flash by the middle of last year palm hp you suck you lie I hope you go bankrupt and you all suffer for your lies 400 dollars for your pre plus and only because you promised to make it better you suck you suck you suck
Posted by: AaronMinner | February 10, 2011 at 08:27 AM
Why would a developer target your system when you just announced that NONE of your current customer base will be moving to 2.x???
Developers writing 2.x app have no customers to sell to.
This is a terrible decision and needs to be addressed immediately.
Posted by: Joe | February 10, 2011 at 08:44 AM
Not to mention, will the newly announced Pre3 smartphone be 4G capable? Nothing on the website indicates either way. If not, then me and I'm sure plenty of other Pre and Pixi owners will be saying bye-bye and moving to Android phones.
Posted by: Mike W. | February 10, 2011 at 11:28 AM
Developers can continue writing Mojo apps for webOS 1.4.x which will work on all webOS devices. Then, when they feel enough of the older devices have been retired they can move on to webOS 2.x or webOS 3.x and Enyo.
Posted by: Dragongears | February 10, 2011 at 11:31 AM
I really want to be excited. It was crushing to remove 2.0 from the table for the folks that have stuck with Palm for forever. Forcing people onto new hardware isn't really cool. More importantly, hardware that's not even available while Palm Pre's are languishing.
Posted by: Mcfryer | February 10, 2011 at 11:32 AM
@Ron, Aaron & Joe - I too am disappointed that WebOS 2 won't be coming to the original Palm Pre, but something tells me that HP and Palm really have tried their best on this one as it was originally promised by the end of last year and then pushed back until March this year which obviously demonstrates that things didn't go to plan exactly how they wanted. It's obvious that the hardware mustn't be capable of running WebOS 2 which makes me think it's probably better to stick to an OS version that runs smoothly and forgo certain features that we were after. Palm and HP obviously realize that this is disappointing news which is why Jon Rubenstein stated that HP will offer "something special" to users of old hardware. I guess we'll have to wait and see what this is before we get too critical. Just my two cents. Stu :-)
Posted by: Stuart Guthrie | February 10, 2011 at 11:34 AM
After yesterday's massive FAIL by HP, Mr. Kerris has his work cut out for him.
Posted by: Ed Cates | February 10, 2011 at 11:38 AM
“HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have. When HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship.” The next announcement comes in less than two weeks on February 9th, and the HP CEO promised that products announced there will be available a few weeks later. <<==hp is full of shit
Posted by: stan | February 10, 2011 at 11:44 AM
why would i still want a pre 3 when i can get a sprint iphone 5?
Posted by: Joe Joe | February 10, 2011 at 12:26 PM
HP, Treat your existing customers with care! Give upgrade credits & white glove treatment to keep me. Love my Pre (orig) and my Sprint service Plan. Allow me to upgrade with a special deal and I'll sing your praises.
Also, marketing has been weak... More buzz = more sales = more apps = more BUZZ = more Sales = more apps. Market, MARKET, MARKET!
Posted by: Dennis Adams | February 10, 2011 at 01:05 PM
I'm also disappointed with the announcement last night. Un-learn Mojo and re-code in Enyo. And the only thing available now is the Web Emulator, and once I finish coding my apps, I have to wait and see if any new customers buy the new phone months later. So I have to do all these and none of my hard work will support the current customers. So why even host the developer conference? I just don't see the reason of hosting the developer conference. I'm glad that I live in San Francisco. If I actually came from other places, I'd be very pissed about it.
Posted by: Aaron | February 10, 2011 at 01:29 PM
I don't think this is a fail at all. But I don't really see the reason for no gesture area on the touchpad. That is what was awesome about WebOS. My wife had a Palm Pre and loved it. We liked how the gesture area left more area for the screen. No back buttons were needed on the screen. It was awesome. Once you learned the gesture area you could fly through everything on that phone. But now with the TouchPad everyone is going to be lost. Moving from the Pre3 to the Touchpad will frustrate people because they will always be looking for the gesture area on the Touchpad. And looking for buttons on the screen on the Pre3. This was a honorable idea. I was really wanting a Touchpad until I saw this. It isn't even in my top 4 choices now. Thats how important that feature was. I know its hard because of the rotating of the table. But people would have gotten used to it being on the side. Would have been fine. Nice phones. Because you left the basic features of WebOS alone. Yes the gesture area is a basic feature that is NEEDED.
Posted by: none | February 10, 2011 at 01:51 PM
Palm/HP is a joke now.
The only way Palm can please the existing user and developer base would be to act NOW and give clear statements on what we can and shouldn't expect. It's not enough to have vague statements that we can expect "special somethings," in "the coming weeks." You need to get your stuff together and tell your (once) loyal customers exactly what that will be, and when. And do it quickly.
Otherwise, Palm/HP deserve to fail.
Posted by: Steven | February 10, 2011 at 02:05 PM
@AaronMinner @Joe @Mcfryer @Stuart Guthrie
They said no Over The Air update because it is too complicated of an update. SOME current devices will get some form of an update. Read this for more info and to see if your device also can. http://www.precentral.net/hp-posts-webos-2-x-update-checker-case-you-need-more-schadenfreude
I assume their will be ways around it. Please follow the Homebrew community on the precentral forums.
Posted by: Sir Kuttin | February 10, 2011 at 02:36 PM
@HP... Jon, I've been reading your blog since buying my first of 3 Pre devices over the past (nearly) 2 years. Tried an Android device (EVO 4G-Sprint) for 10 days. Hated the experience compared to webOS so much I switched carriers to Verizon. I'VE NEVER DONE THAT FOR A DAMN PHONE BEFORE IN MY LIFE!
After the after-party news from yesterday's event I can't believe what I'm hearing. In order of what the hell is HP thinking:
1. No Gesture area in webOS 3.0? This change if true will likely cause me to leave webOS. I hate to say it but the gesture area is like taking away multitasking. DON'T DO IT!
2. Making Mojo apps run in an emulator on webOS 3.0? Again, WTH? What a great way to alienate existing devs! unbelievable.
3. No Pre 3 for what? 3 months or more? Again, this is making it so hard to want to throw the support that I've freely and gladly given Palm for making such a great OS in the first place.
What Palm/HP did right: In love with the Pre 3. Perfect for me! Thanks! It's not all bad; TouchPad, rockin' except for the lack of gestures; and I love the idea of a Pixi-size screen on solid hardware.
Let's get this gesture area thing fixed now. Please. The Windows Phone 7 Dell Venue Pro is looking better by the day.
Posted by: MarkJ | February 10, 2011 at 02:58 PM
hpalm did this intentionally to sell their pre2's in my opinion. They knew older phone users would have no choice if you want the update bait you with it then make you buy a new phone to have it they know it's the only way to sell all their pre2's before the pre3's come out if you call to complain about the update they suggest that you buy a pre2 because it's pre loaded with webos2.0 wow how convenient buy anotther 400 dollar phone like that's no big deal I just bought the pre plus less than a year ago!
Posted by: AaronMinner | February 10, 2011 at 03:22 PM
Wow, just wow. After 15 years with Palm I just don't get what you think you were doing. Announcing products that you don't have for months without pricing or even release dates? Based on current history "summer" is probably November.
Then trashing ALL existing customers, doing a complete reset on the WebOS installed base? What are developers supposed to do? Carry on with 1.4.5 for those that can actually buy apps, handle 2.0.x for the (very) few on a Pre2 and then wait to see if the new devices a) ship at all, and if so in what quantity. I can't imagine anyone will develop for a product that doesn't exist, shich will, of course, start from an installed base of zero.
Who is your target developer? Masochists?
I'm sorry, exciting as the new products might be. Set a price and a ship date, or forget it. 6 months is not just a few weeks.
We've been burned too many times now. If you're gonna do something special for us Pre owners to keep us on board, now is the time. Yesterday was like slideware. Real companies ship.
Posted by: Zapgadget | February 10, 2011 at 03:32 PM
So what are new developers interested in developing for webOS (like me) supposed to do?
Learn mojo now, and then try to forget everything in 6 and start over again with enyo?
You can't code with mojo since it will be gone in a year anyways, and you can't start enyo since it's not even in beta yet.
Catch 22.
Come on guys, you know better than this...
Posted by: propalica | February 10, 2011 at 04:51 PM
By the way, I read that HP donated a big server to WebOS Internals Group. That is really a good news. It's nice to see them supporting the homebrew scene.
Posted by: propalica | February 10, 2011 at 05:02 PM
@Stuart Guthrie
the development community has webOS 2.0 on Pre Minus (original sprint Pre's) so it can run. Most people say it generally runs pretty well, perhaps better than 1.4.5, but it does have bugs.
I think the issue is that to install it requires "doctoring" the phone because the OS partition has to be reformatted, and this cannot be done OTA. Besides that, there are the previously mentioned bugs. Some of which are minor, some might be considered a real issue to many.
Again (to HP), most people with Pre Minus devices don't really want to make their phone last another year, they want new and more robust hardware ASAP because it is well known the original Pre was not the most solidly built device.
Posted by: Justin | February 11, 2011 at 04:17 PM
I have been a loyal Palm consumer for a long ime now. I am very happy that HP bought out Palm and saved the brand. The idea of the Pre 3 having HP on the back and not Palm is a bad idea. Palm should be on the phone, or palm $= . . .please change this. I will wait for the pre3 but do not wipe out the Palm name. The Palm devices are great, they have a good history . . . .please reconsider .
Posted by: Sir Erick | February 13, 2011 at 10:46 PM
Crap... I was learning Mojo and now Enyo won't run on my Pre-
I visited the Apple store today... XCode and iPhone here I come.
Posted by: J | February 18, 2011 at 08:19 AM
If you want HP to know how you feel about no WebOS 2 for Pre and Pixi users call:
Customer Support: 877-426-3777
Or email Léo Apotheker using this link
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/ceo/index.html?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
Posted by: Waiting for WebOS 2.0 | February 25, 2011 at 01:48 PM
What's up HP? I had a 700p for several years. It was a wonderful phone. I got a Blackberry because I was trying to wait for a new Palm product. Go ahead and screw up HP, and I am out. Sprint or no Palm for me. I will just keep the Blackberry. I am tired of wasting money. If I have to wait a few more months, I can wait another year.
Posted by: Beth | April 16, 2011 at 09:23 PM