BlackBerry should have just used webOS

In the span of around 20 days back in 2010, two of THE smartphone pioneers were a part of major purchasing agreements in the mobile industry. On April 9, 2010, BlackBerry announced the acquisition of QNX software. This purchase was made to find a new, fresh take on the company’s ailing smartphone lineup. A much bigger splash was made some two weeks later, when HP purchased Palm on April 28. Now, hindsight is 20/20, but I pose the question of why didn’t BlackBerry just buy Palm, or find a way to license webOS?

I must preface this argument with I am not privy to any insider information regarding the boardrooms of either company. My argument going further is strictly that of an end-user’s perspective. This is a hypothetical scenario, that is a result of using both the new BlackBerry 10 and webOS platforms for significant amounts of time over the last 3 years. I have owned some variant of every webOS device that has been released, as well as, a BlackBerry PlayBook for the last 2 years, and Z10 for the last month and a half.

My main reasoning here is this: the PlayBook OS and its newest iteration, BB10, are so similar to the existing webOS interface that it seems the easier solution would have been for BlackBerry to use webOS. The PlayBook OS is a complete knock off of the webOS UI. It has drop down menus in the top corners of the screen. Multi-tasking is handled via the same cards metaphor. You even close applications the exact same way, by tossing the cards off the top of the interface. Unfortunately, it just doesn't seem as fluid as webOS. Now, webOS was known for sluggishness at times as well, but it had two years worth of maturity on the PlayBook OS by the time of its release in 2011. webOS still seems snappier, and the Enyo sliding-pane design of a good webOS application is hard to beat. Similar ideas are now seen in many Android applications.

Let’s move past the PlayBook OS and into the new Z10 running BlackBerry 10. While the UI elements of the Z10 are not as blatant as the PlayBook, I still can't help but see webOS everywhere. The Hub is the central nervous system of BlackBerry 10. It attempts to aggregate all your online accounts into one powerful aspect of the operating system. Any former webOS user will immediately see Synergy underlyings in the Hub. Honestly, the Hub does a better job of allowing the user to interact with these accounts than in webOS, but this could have been easily accomplished using Synergy as the base, had BlackBerry chosen to work with Palm.

Mobile multi-tasking is the house that webOS built, and its influence is seen again in BB10. The cards metaphor is still there, albeit tweaked, and it is still initiated by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. In some ways, it is a weaker implementation than that of webOS, or the PlayBook. You are allowed only 8 applications to be shown at one time, and you have no controls over customizing their order. They are automatically placed in the order of the application being opened and this cannot be reordered by the user. webOS was ahead of this allowing the Stacks of related cards and the ability to reorder them according to your liking.

Last, but not least, the release of the newest member of the BB10 family, the Q10, has brought with it a new “unique” feature called Type and Go. This allows the user to start typing on the hardware keyboard of the Q10, and specific options will populate that allow you to perform actions without the need actually launching an application. Sound familiar? It should. Palm announced Just Type with Quick Actions way back in 2010 with the release of webOS 2.0 for its devices.

I would like to close this thinking-out-loud session of mine saying that I like BlackBerry 10. It’s a very good OS, and a huge step up for BlackBerry. I have been using it, and enjoying both my Z10 and PlayBook. However, I can’t help but wonder what could have been if BlackBerry could have found a way to either purchase or license webOS. I know there was a rather large difference in the purchase prices of QNX vs Palm, but with the a more mature option in webOS, BlackBerry could have hit the ground running with a “PlayBook” running webOS 3.0.

It could have been a perfect alliance. Palm was making an innovative UI for mobile, but could never make top-end, compelling hardware. BlackBerry’s predicament was the exact opposite. They were still making solid hardware, but with an outdated operating system. This union would have also joined two great communities. Both the webOS and BlackBerry users, and developers, are some of the best I have ever been around. I wish these two names, once synonymous with the word smartphone, could have found a way to work together.