We joked about HP printers running webOS almost the second we learned about
the Palm acquisition, but it turns out that's actually part of the plan: HP CEO Mark Hurd told analysts that webOS would hit a "variety of form factors, including slates and web-connected printers" on the company's Q2 financial results call today. webOS tablets were
obviously a no-brainer, but printers are slightly more intriguing, in a way: while we're not overly surprised HP wants to leverage webOS on its line of
advanced touchscreen printers, we're very curious to see what that actually looks like in practice -- a printer with Synergy-level Facebook integration for easy photo printing? A printer that can play 3D games like Need for Speed? A printer that can... multitask? The possibilities are amusingly endless, if you think about it -- and HP's printing and imaging division is a $6.4 billion dollar business, so the money and motivation to push this idea into strange new places are certainly there. Speaking of money, HP's doing just well on that front in general: profits were up 25 percent this quarter to $2.9 billion on total revenues of $30 billion, so yeah -- Palm certainly has the money and resources it's desperately needed. Now it just needs some new products and sharper execution.
posted May 18th 2010 6:09PM
HPalm smartphone that can sync with their printers over Synergy. Make it happen.
@N900
How about a printer that doesn't need a 378MB install download?
Just give us the slates quickly pleez k?
@N900 What about printing over 3G. Is that even a possibility?
@N900
I guess those Facebook pictures will now become actual print.
@N900
Actually I think that's a very good idea. I don't know the current HP printer UI but I always wanted a good one that understands WiFi, can easily log on to my picture phone or my camera or can deal with a memory stick or my external HDD. Without turning on my laptop. When webOS can deliver all this, bring it!
@N900 don't they already do this over bluetooth? a lot?
@Michael Scrip Sounds possible. That may be part of the deal here. It's real possible HP's internal software is a hairball. It's probably quite old since they've been making printers for a long time, and having to write and maintain all their own stacks for things like wifi and whatnot is probably a huge pain in the ass.
@N900: I feel kind of embarrassed for webOS now...
@N900 HP + WebOS FTW!
@gargle I agree, Just fast-track the damn Slate already. How hard is to install WebOS?
@N900
Omfg I thought I was the only one who'd be excited about this, because of the stability and flexibility of webos. I would actually love for everything in my house to run on it. It'd give a whole new meaning to synergy, I mean if I could keep my palm profile logged into multiple webos devices I think that would be pretty sick :-).
The possibilities of a three screen webos connected ecosystem:
-seamlessly holding txt, voip, and im conversations from my phone, to my printer, to my tablet
-being able to answer the phone on any of my webos devices no matter where I am within my house
-being able to pause video games on my pre, and continue them on my printer while printing my hd photos from the weekend, than pausing the game or app once again, plugging my tablet into my tv through hdmi, and continuing my game on a big-screen.
Even further possibilities:
hp is a huge corporation that seems to have it's eyes set on brighter horizons, thus they know that there biggest contender would have to be apple(iphone and ipad).
killer selling points for apple's three-screen ecosystem(ipad, iphone, ipod):
-surplus of peripherals for almost everything in your life (your shower, your bike, your heart, your car, your home)
-the inclusion of a familiar syncing client(itunes)
-the "cool" factor
-familiar interface across three screens(ipod, ipad, and iphone)
How Hp will counteract:
-Considering how much effort hp is putting into creating these new webos devices, I could definitely see hp backing them with a similar peripheral ecosystem, once webos takes off like they want it too, I wouldn't be surprised to see hp signing a deal with certain companies to get webos integration offered as a choice for your car or gps similar to the "works with ipod" branding apple has going on.
-The syncing client is definitely up in the air, I could see hp pushing double twist or something similar, but iTunes pretty much has it in the bag at the moment with mind-share... annoying but true... people kind of see every other alternative syncing client as complicated and distasteful before even using it, because they are so used to drag and drop or itunes.
-The "cool factor" is already kind of achieved with hp's reputation as a reliable computer vendor, that along with there talented advertising team who created the celebrity hp commercials with the cool pop-up book graphics, and the flashy and to the point slate advertisements.
- If hp integrates webos into basically everything this could eventually make the interface just as common and well-known as the iphones, and thus make webos an even bigger contender to both the tablet and smartphone market. I mean if my mom was using the same interface on her phone that she used for the printer, a tablet for the kitchen, and her phone... I'd think that pretty soon she'd get super used to it, and if my mom can get you used to this operating system anyone can and who knows Maybe the next hp laptop will dual boot webos, like dell used to do with it's media-center software.
IN CLOSING:
If they implement the os, and it's features correctly, webos would become basically the same staple that the blackberry os is for some power users, building a built-in audience similar to the likes of blackberry and apple.
I for one see myself sticking to webos for a very long time, especially once flash comes around, is it just me or is webos, starting to look alot more like a legitimate operating system than just a mobile one?(useful apps, html, flash, multitasking)
If palm gets the third party support it deserves and develops showoff palm's "wow factor" to a broader audience, I can see the ipad and whatever hp and palm are going to offer, going head to head on a constant basis.
Although I don't see it happening overnight, or any time soon for that matter, I can definitely see this plan helping palm regaining some of the huge shadow it put over the smart phone market back in the early days of treo's and palm pilots... people seem to forget that the Treo used to be what the iPhone is today.
Of course palm's offering will be alot less expensive, have better 3g coverage, cross platform implementation(if they allow us to sign into multiple palm devices with our webos account), flash support, flawless multitasking, an easier to use interface in my opinion, seamless home-brew support, multiple form factors, and better internal components.
At this point i believe the only thing the ipad will have that palm's offering won't is the inclusion of the apple logo on the back... which will probably be a huge selling point to the "hipsters" of the world, and most likely the new ipad will sale more based on that fact... but I don't see palm fallowing too far behind. I don't even doubt that in the future they could dethrone android.
Maybe I am crazy, or a bit too optimistic, but the inclusion of an incredible operating system like webos, implemented into everything with a screen inside of my home sounds great to me :-).
@wtgig You lost me at "and continue them on my printer"
@wtgig
tl;dr
@wtgig
A good piece of sync software to transfer files between WebOS devices would be one of the deciding factors for my next printer purchase. I love the fact I don't need extra software to pull pictures off my phone nor memory cards.
One thing I do wonder about is how WebOS might work on one of the HP touch pcs as a media center. Or think of customized builds of WebOS for business and museum kiosks.
@N900
I read several comments. I think the best use of putting an OS into printer would be a PC-less printing. For now it is mostly limited to the images but now user would be able to handle documents of course, presentations, webpages directly from onboard browser. In short it is on-board pc-like platform. You do not need a computer just to take out print means more sale.
With this move, it is also possible they can put a slate/smartphone holder on top of it, put HP slate and well do whatever you want to do.
@wtgig
When they can do all this I will have everything in my future house running WebOS or whoever wins the competition. Imagine having a tablet, phone, laptop, thermostat and everything syncing wihtout a problem. Thena again MS could have this done but they had to nix the courier.Could have everything running on Win7 from phone, to tablet to lappy to gaming rig, house lighting and all the things you could think of. I'd seriously invest some hard cash if someone comes with all that and my house will be sick. And don't forget the car. I can see Nokia pulling this off if they want to.
@wtgig
Your story was getting pretty long but I read the whole thing. By the end I was really excited to see webOS take over my life. I was actually really sad to hear Palm so close to death. Cus I was just telling someone a month ago that i'll always have one webOS phone, whether it be my personal phone, or my work phone. It just works too good to let it go.
@Billy And this is great. Seeing WebOs getting improved to another notch is very lucrative. Opinions. http://j.mp/hp-webos-preview
I was hoping we'd see an HP printer touchscreen with that god-awful rubenstein picture which has been used for ages on it
@billobob Dare to dream!
@Eli Haj
priority fail
THE ALL NEW: Palm Print
@Spaceshipped. The Palm Pre-nter sounds power fuller
@Lord Vader
Only post i've ever seen you make that was amusing. uprank.
@Lord Vader
>_> stole my uprank.
@Spaceshipped
Nevermind, I'm upranked now :-)
@Spaceshipped. What the!? Do you live on upranks or something?
@Lord Vader
Do you run on batteries?!
@WilliamNighthawk (bows head in shame) Yes
@Lord Vader
It's healthier than living off the oppression and enslavement of others.
@Spaceshipped I don't know, have you tasted fear and pain? I heard it tastes quite excellent when ripe.
@Spaceshipped
His name is Lord Vader, Not Lord Jobs.
@Lord Vader
NO! That's not true! :'(
@daftrok
That's IMPOSSIBLE!!!
I can only imagine the hacked prints that will come from this. How about an app that distorts documents and adds random black outs to make it look like it is 'government official' papering.
@WilliamNighthawk
I'm gonna make a counterfeit app.
and then ill make millions! Litterally.
@Kamil R My FBI badge says otherwise! Just wait a little longer and I'll show it to you.
@WilliamNighthawk
Why does your FBI badge have a print date saying it was printed 5 min ago...?
@Kamil R Damn it! Settings page. Hold-on, I'll repri.. I'll get another one issued.
A printer that can make phone calls...?
Nah, I'm guessing they're working on a cool web interface to retrieve print jobs.
Printjobs, eh?
@DirtyVegas
Sounds like a fax machine.
@DirtyVegas
It comes All-in-One...and that has just gained new meanings...
A printer that runs CUPS right on its internal controller. The possibilities are endless!
Awesome. Can't wait for all the awesome HP/Palm devices.
Skynet is pleased.
Hopefully webOS will rock now that they have proper funding.
Yeah I'm guessing an auto sync and print from facebook, flicker, photobucket, etc. It would probably also sync with the pictures on your webOS phone/tablet.
I don't want a printer or tablet I want a 4 inch touchscreen phone with a snapdragon and web os I like my droid but I'm tired of it and always wanted a pre but it was too dated.(hardware wise)