Jon Rubinstein live from D: Dive Into Mobile

Palm / HP's Jon Rubinstein is just about to take the stage at the D: Dive Into Mobile event. Will there be talk of past failures? Future triumphs? Will he break out a rumored device? Will he breakdance? Only the liveblog knows for sure... so keep reading after the break!

3:29PM And that's it. No new devices. No details. Nothing really. We still love you Jon, but you need to release some new hardware.

3:27PM Kara: So where do you see the next radical change in this market coming from?

Jon: I don't know about radical... HP has an ability to bring this connected world to the consumer.

Kara: And you're going to stick with it?

Jon: Yeah.

Kara: You're going to be number 3 -- not number 1?

Jon: Well you have to get to number 3 before you get to number 1.

3:27PM Q (again from Josh!): So, when are you going to introduce a new product?

Jon: We will be talking a lot next year! We will see you on your show!

3:26PM
Q (from Mr. Joshua Topolsky!): Apple has a story and Microsoft has a story now in the mobile space. What is the WebOS story that is going to make consumers buy a Palm device?

Jon: The first thing is that we have a unique user experience compared to everyone else. Some of those features where we integrate into the Cloud are going to be really profound. Another point is this connected device strategy and that fits really well with HP. Right now we are really quiet cause we don't have anything we can talk about.

3:20PM Kara: So your relationships with carriers... has it changed with HP?

Jon: Well HP obviously sells a lot of stuff to carriers. We've got some great products coming and we're really excited about it.

Okay Jon, we hear you. Great products coming. Check.

3:19PM Jon is talking about the cloud-based services which webOS offers. "A seamless user experience across devices." He's talking tablets, phones, PRINTERS.

3:18PM Jon: We've added quick actions, universal search has become just type. We're continuing to add capabilities with our OTA updates. We have a really exciting year upcoming -- a new tablet as well.

3:16PM Kara: You talk about people not wanting to use an iPhone -- what has to be radically different?

Jon: If you look at webOS 2.0, we've done a lot of innovative things. It's got 50 new features, Flash, Skype, new Facebook app...

Kara: But is there a new concept?

Jon: That's where I'm going.

3:15PM Jon: But look at overall smartphone ownership. It's 20 or 30 percent in the US, 20 overseas. The growth is huge.

3:15PM Kara: Is there room for all these different devices? All these competitors?

Jon: You know I think it's a 3 to 5 company game.

3:13PM Kara: Is it going to be redesigned?

Jon: It's too early to talk about that. The first Pre was one of the first to use some new technologies. But we have a variety of products coming next year, including a new tablet.

3:12PM Kara: So the phone?

Jon: We have a variety of products coming out. Next year we'll have a very different conversation.

3:12PM Kara: Okay, so when is your phone coming out? Is the Palm name going to continue?

Jon: What do you think?

Kara: No, kill it.

Jon: Okay you heard it here first. You know honestly I have no allegiance to it. It has some good connotations, it has some bad.

3:09PM Kara: So do you have autonomy at HP?

Jon: What we chose to do as part of the acquisition was integrate part of the company into HP, but we really kept engineering separate.

3:07PM Jon: It was a distraction... it was lots of turmoil for a day or so.

3:07PM Kara: Did the Mark Hurd stuff impact you guys at all?

3:07PM Sorry folks -- we're having network issues!

3:06PM Jon is out!

Kara: We're going to play an interview I did with you at CES.

Ha! It's the clip where he says he's never used an iPhone. "I've actually never used one." Kara: "What?" Jon: "It's true." Ha!

Kara: So, have you used one?

Jon: We're going to go through this again? Have I used one as my own device? I haven't. Have I touched one, yes.

Kara: Well I brought on Apple for you.

Jon: We wanted to create something unique with webOS, we didn't want to copy anything. Look, we have people who use iPhones, and I read reviews, I see launches. But I don't want to be tainted by a different experience. I'm trying to come with a fresh outlook on how things should work. I think what we're seeing in the industry is that everyone is copying the iPhone.

Kara: So let's talk about what happened at Palm. You guys started from a blank slate... but Andy Rubin said you were still in the mindset of the original Palm experience.

Jon: That's just not true. We couldn't leverage anything from the old OS. We did take some of the DNA -- ease of use, minimum number of steps to execute functions, the gestures... that all came from what made the Pilot great. We wanted to have a Palm, and now HP experience, but we didn't use any of the stuff from before. If anything, I would say webOS is the most advanced mobile OS out there. We use the languages of the web. We designed webOS to be connected to the cloud. That was part of the original concept. If anything, Android is based on Java, that's even more backwards looking.

Kara: So let's talk about Palm. Why couldn't it get the traction it needed?

Jon: I think we had a lot of what we needed to make it happen. We had a great team, carrier support, over half a billion in cash. But the market moved too fast as far as the competition went. We didn't have a way to get to scale. We could be small, but that's not sustainable.

Kara: So it was an issue of scale. It was the weird lady marketing? Well you changed that quickly. But it wasn't marketing?

Jon: There were things we could have done differently.

Kara: So was it the only option to sell?

Jon: The feeling was it was the best alternative. We felt the most expeditious outcome was the partner with HP.

Kara: Who else bid on you?

Jon: I can't tell you company A B C and D.