Beginning next year, Hewlett Packard will be release it’s WebOS on each and every PC. Their hope is to get developers away from mobile devices exclusively and on to desktops. WebOS will be offered in conjunction with the Windows OS HP hopes to develop the WebOS in to a multi-platform OS that can run on a variety of devices from smartphones to tablets and PCs.
This push by HP will be critical to the advent of the WebOS’s viability as a standalone platform. The mr setback is the lack of software support for the OS.
Apple iOS currently has approximately 350 000 apps, Android 250 000, and Web OS around 6000. More details of the imminent launch will be detailed at a HP event in San Francisco on March 14, 2011. The proliferation of alternate web operating systems in the market and the fact that the HP PC will come with one built in, validates the wide spread usage of alternate operating systems. This shows a larger trend of end-users moving towards mobile app-based, light-Os’s that can be used on a variety of devices free from conventional desktop OS’s.
Google has continues to release its “Chromium OS” which is touted as “an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web.”
The entire user experience takes place within the web browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. All applications and programs are web apps instead. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.
Because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security but the biggest feature is the speed benefits. Chromium bypasses the OS and can get a user on the web in just a few seconds after booting up the computer.Companies such as HP and Google have realized that computer usage is moving away from the traditional PC user to a more generic user who wants to be connected anywhere and everywhere on a variety of devices.
We are starting to see a shift in the OS market which could begin to give the Windows/Mac OS monopoly a run for their money. My prediction is that 2011 will begin to see the advent of partnerships being formed with all the major players in the Web OS market and that 2012 will see wide spread implementation of them. After that comes the “Web OS Wars”. My prediction is that the Chrome OS will emerge as the favored player.