Palm webOS Design Director Jumps Ship to Google

This news doesn't bode well for Palm and their new owner HP, which recently declared their plan to double down on webOS and take the smartphone market by storm. The now former senior director of human interface and user experience for Palm, Matias Duarte, who was the genius behind webOS's user interface, has confirmed that he will be joining Google and the Android team as their User Experience Director.

While its a shame Duarte isn't sticking around to see things through with Palm, this is a major blow for HP and paints a brighter future for Android. Duarte has worked in the past with members of the current Android team when he was the director of design for the phone maker Danger, which like webOS provided a slick user interface for their phone called the Sidekick. In an odd turn of events, Danger was co-founded by Andy Rubin, who coincidentally left Danger to start Android Inc. in 2003. Since then Android was sold to Google, Rubin became Vice President of engineering, and Duarte rejoined his former colleagues at Android.

Currently Android phones are known for sacrificing aesthetic design and a pretty UI for more functionality and improved customization features. Gingerbread, the next version of Android, is already in the works and expected to release at the end of the year. While Duarte may not have much of an influence in steering Gingerbread, expect to see his full visual influence come into play on the following versions of Android.

Verizon and Google Team Up for Android Tablet

In a bid to catch up with rival AT&T Mobility and compete on the tablet front against the iPad, Verizon Wireless has announced plans to launch a tablet based on Google's Android platform as well as a host of other connected devices. While neither Verizon nor Google would confirm the hardware partnership, Verizon CEO McAdam mentioned Google in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

"What do we think the next big wave of opportunities are?" Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said in the interview. "We're working on tablets together, for example. We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience."

The move certainly strengthens the relationship between Verizon and Google which was forged last fall when the two announced a multi-year collaboration on devices and services. However, it remains to be seen how Apple will respond to the news of a new tablet powered by Google, which already competes with Apple in wireless software and mobile advertising. Odds are Apple is a little less than pleased and it will be interesting to see how they respond to Verizon's request to carry the iPhone on their network. Perhaps this announcement is merely a ploy to give Verizon more leverage in negotiations with Apple or perhaps Apple has already denied Verizon access to their iPhone.

Regardless, an Android tablet on Verizon's network is not entirely surprising. At the Consumer Electronics Show last January Motorola demonstrated a prototype Android tablet running on Verizon's upcoming LTE network. It was also noted in the demonstration that if the tablet was commercialized and produced, the device could be released for sale as early as fall of this year. Verizon has already admitted to being “handicapped” by its CDMA network but McAdam promised that the new devices would be available on the company’s new LTE 4G network, which arrives early next year.

As of right now, Verizon and Google are in it together for the long haul and it looks like Apple will be facing much stiffer competition with the tablet than it ever saw in the iPhone and iPod markets. Now that Android tablets have been confirmed and an HP/Palm tablet all but unannounced, there will undoubtedly be an all-out tablet war. Right now Apple has the very distinct advantage seeing as they have already released a matured iPad and analysts estimate that it will take one to two years for competitors to reach the same functionality. Lets just hope that we as consumers see some benefit from this tablet war.

Dude, You're Gettin' a Palm

In case you're not up to date with the latest tech happenings, HP has acquired Palm for $1.2 billion. If you're saying to yourself "Big Whoopty Doo", there's really not much needed to know. The biggest factors involving this merger is the future of webOS, the evolution of the smartphone, and of course the fact that this is HP's big attempt to jump into the smartphone market.

If you examine the evolution of the smartphone—particularly after the release of the first iPhone which paved the way for the smartphone industry—it becomes clear that the devices are really just small PCs. They require processors, ram, and other hardware just like a PC and at the same time they require operating system to bring all that hardware together for a smooth platform. Dell was perhaps one of the first to notice this PC "trend" and now the company is coming out with Dell-branded smartphones.

HP, on the other hand, allowed its Windows Mobile-powered iPaq line to stagnate while they waited for Microsoft to roll out a new version of its mobile OS. As HP continued to wait for Microsoft and the iPaq line further deteriorated, Apple, Google, RIM, and many others have bulked up their rosters of smartphones leaving HP trailing in the dust still waiting on Microsoft. It's important to note that Apple and Google (Android) aren't just offering great smartphones, but rather an all-in-one phone solution including hardware, software, and services.

Clearly HP was missing something despite their ability to produce great hardware and provided great services. So far HP has been forced to use currently available operating systems which has effectively tied HP's future to whoevers' operation system they used. Whether it was Windows Phone 7 or Android, Microsoft or Google would have controlled their destiny.

With the Palm acquisition, HP is finally in a position to control its own mobile destiny. With webOS, HP gets an operating system that fully spans mobile communication and the Web while no longer having to rely on Microsoft or Google to provide the OS. This merger successfully puts HP's foot in the door for smartphones, tablets, and netbooks. HP currently plans to invest well over $200 million into Palm R&D while also investing heavily in third-party software development for the webOS platform. Palm's OS gives HP the ability to unite Web apps with mobile apps in real-time on mobile platforms just like the iPhone.

However there is a chance that HP's plan will be nothing more than a huge flop. Simply put, HP wants what Apple has. A single operating system, which it completely controls, at the heart of all of its consumer electronics -- phones, tablets, netbooks, lightweight PCs, digital cameras, televisions, etc. The problem lies with the fact that WebOS is already considered a failed platform. Despite its nice user interface and a few technical qualities, consumers haven't found any justification to buy Palm devices instead of Apple, Android, or even Microsoft devices. And, more importantly, developers haven't found any incentive to develop applications for WebOS.

Without any unique apps there would be absolutely no reason to have a unique platform. All the while, Android and Apple continue to fade away into the distance with crowds of people behind them while HP is still trying to get their game straight.
Hopefully this merger will become a success with HP becoming a mobile powerhouse over the next few years but only time will tell.