The first ever smart "device" I ever owned, and that I purchased myself, was a Sony Clie PEG-UX50 (released 2003) running Palm OS 5.2. I slaved away at my job for weeks to save up the nearly $600 this thing was worth at the time. It was a device ahead of its time and had every spec you could imagine. Once I had that baby in my hands I couldn't put it down. That device was my first introduction to Palm OS and the community of developers and hackers intent on making the device do incredible things- I was hooked. The UX50 and Sony's entire line of PDA's was canceled shortly after its release and I never bought another Sony product again. The hardware was gone, but I stuck with Palm OS because it did everything I needed it to do. That, and the community behind it was exciting, helpful, and knowledgeable.
The UX50 was the first in a long line of Palm OS devices that I owned; Palm OS is all I knew. It wasn't until they started putting phones on these things that I realized the full potential of having the entire Internet in the palm of my hand. The Palm Treo 650 was my first "smart phone" purchased on Sprint and it became a companion of mine everywhere I went. Palm OS had come a long way since that UX50, and Palm as a company was in its heyday, releasing a new smartphone every year; I bought as many as I could get my hands on. The Treo 755P was a personal favorite, followed by a black Palm Centro, which I could stick in a front pocket and take anywhere. webOS was introduced to the world in January 2009 and it changed everything. Not only was it a new direction for Palm OS, but for Palm itself. The mobile landscape was changing, or so we thought.
I'd never waited in line for anything in my life, ever. When the day came for the Palm Pre to be released on Sprint, I got up early to wait in line at a local Sprint store that opened early for the occasion. Looking back at it, it was the one and only time any carrier paid that much attention to a webOS device. I cracked that box open the minute I had my hands on it. In an iPhone world, webOS was a breath of fresh air, and fans of webOS were as passionate about it as I was. I got my girlfriend to buy a Pre Plus when it came to Verizon, then I broke my Sprint contract of 12 years to go to Verizon for the Palm Pre 2. Palm was acquired by HP in April 2010 and the worrying started for me, although not at first.
At that moment, I thought the HP acquisition of Palm was the best thing to happen to the ailing company. The iPhone and the iPad were king of the mobile space and having HP's muscle behind Palm could only spell great things for the company, right? HP went to work right away on new hardware. How about webOS on a tablet? Yes, please. I was a huge fan of the iPad, and to have webOS on a tablet would be icing on the cake. When my TouchPad arrived at my doorstep, the iPad took a spot in my junk drawer for the time being. But for all the TouchPad was, it still couldn't match the productivity of the iPad because the apps just weren't there. Many people thought the same, and the TouchPad never really made a dent in the tablet space. We all know what happens next: HP, on August 18, 2011, announced the discontinuation of the entire line of webOS devices. For me, it was the Sony Clie all over again. Just 49 days after the release of the TouchPad, it was all over.
So where does that leave me? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed; that webOS will have a future in one way or another. I just don't see that happening anymore. Sure, there will be some iteration of it somewhere, and whatever that is, I will always be a fan. I feel many webOS faithful have moved on, as have I. I've picked up an HTC Radar on T-Mobile for that Windows Phone experience (there I go, picking the underdog again!), but I also carry an unlocked Galaxy Nexus with pure ICS on board. I felt like a fish out of water leaving Palm and webOS behind, but I've since opened my eyes to everything else the mobile tech world has to offer, and what an exciting world it is!
The UX50 was the first in a long line of Palm OS devices that I owned; Palm OS is all I knew. It wasn't until they started putting phones on these things that I realized the full potential of having the entire Internet in the palm of my hand. The Palm Treo 650 was my first "smart phone" purchased on Sprint and it became a companion of mine everywhere I went. Palm OS had come a long way since that UX50, and Palm as a company was in its heyday, releasing a new smartphone every year; I bought as many as I could get my hands on. The Treo 755P was a personal favorite, followed by a black Palm Centro, which I could stick in a front pocket and take anywhere. webOS was introduced to the world in January 2009 and it changed everything. Not only was it a new direction for Palm OS, but for Palm itself. The mobile landscape was changing, or so we thought.
I'd never waited in line for anything in my life, ever. When the day came for the Palm Pre to be released on Sprint, I got up early to wait in line at a local Sprint store that opened early for the occasion. Looking back at it, it was the one and only time any carrier paid that much attention to a webOS device. I cracked that box open the minute I had my hands on it. In an iPhone world, webOS was a breath of fresh air, and fans of webOS were as passionate about it as I was. I got my girlfriend to buy a Pre Plus when it came to Verizon, then I broke my Sprint contract of 12 years to go to Verizon for the Palm Pre 2. Palm was acquired by HP in April 2010 and the worrying started for me, although not at first.
At that moment, I thought the HP acquisition of Palm was the best thing to happen to the ailing company. The iPhone and the iPad were king of the mobile space and having HP's muscle behind Palm could only spell great things for the company, right? HP went to work right away on new hardware. How about webOS on a tablet? Yes, please. I was a huge fan of the iPad, and to have webOS on a tablet would be icing on the cake. When my TouchPad arrived at my doorstep, the iPad took a spot in my junk drawer for the time being. But for all the TouchPad was, it still couldn't match the productivity of the iPad because the apps just weren't there. Many people thought the same, and the TouchPad never really made a dent in the tablet space. We all know what happens next: HP, on August 18, 2011, announced the discontinuation of the entire line of webOS devices. For me, it was the Sony Clie all over again. Just 49 days after the release of the TouchPad, it was all over.
So where does that leave me? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dissapointed; that webOS will have a future in one way or another. I just don't see that happening anymore. Sure, there will be some iteration of it somewhere, and whatever that is, I will always be a fan. I feel many webOS faithful have moved on, as have I. I've picked up an HTC Radar on T-Mobile for that Windows Phone experience (there I go, picking the underdog again!), but I also carry an unlocked Galaxy Nexus with pure ICS on board. I felt like a fish out of water leaving Palm and webOS behind, but I've since opened my eyes to everything else the mobile tech world has to offer, and what an exciting world it is!
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