HP CEO Meg Whitman says Android will eventually become closed-source thanks to the Google-Motorola deal.
HP CEO Meg Whitman has been talking smack about Android again after calling Google's highly popular OS "fragmented" just weeks ago. This time she claimed that Android will eventually be closed-source because of Google's approved purchase of Motorola.
This of course comes from a company that purchased Palm seemingly for its OS, failed in its attempt to launch products based on said software, and then decided to release it to the developer community under the open-source Apache license. Earlier this week HP released the source code to the webOS web browser and other code, the second stage in its overall roll out to get webOS to developers by September.
Google revealed back in August 2011 that it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion USD. The deal was just approved by European and U.S. regulators this week. Google claims that Android will remain an open-source OS despite claims stating otherwise. The company also said it would assure fair licensing for Motorola patents.
During a speech at the HP Global Partner conference in Las Vegas, Whitman said it could take up to four years for the complete impact of webOS to be felt. But that's OK. The industry needs another OS, she said, and HP has plenty of patience. She said she's actually rather excited about webOS, and pledged that the company will continue to contribute to its development.
Talk about webOS was rather short in her speech, as she moved on to tell about how she planned to change things once she became CEO. "When I came in I thought the most important thing I could do is remove noise from the system and create stability," Whitman said.
Closed source prevents innovation. We'd still be stuck with Commodore 64's with that logic.
I like WebOS - Really! I just think it is a little too early to be trash talking an operating system that has done fairly well while your operating system has had numerous attemps and failed. To be honest, the last failure was all on HP, I think they gave up too early.
4 years we'll feel the effects of WebOS??? Really? I guess any day now we'll suddenly be hit in the face with the effects of Linux on desktops, Microsoft and Apple will be DESTROYED.
WebOS is at the best place to be for it to survive... open source. Its a tinkering OS... not much else.
WebOS is a good OS, not perfect - but for sure, deserved a better run. What I experienced with the Touch-pad was an unfinished product with crappy support and cheap materials. Palm is officially dead - the company that made PIM mainstream.
But Android and Apple will continue to improve their OSes and leave WebOS in the dust.
u made one mistake... saying women use any logic
actually, your wrong, women do use logic, problem is that it based on a different set of rules than man's logic.
I second jeffunit's comment, also there is a plan (already started) to incorporate all android kernel changes into the mainline kernel thus making android keep up with current kernel and not lag so much back.
I do foresee google creating a closed OS later on based on the experience they acquired from maintaining android.
That would just turn Android into Google-branded iOS.
hahhahahahha