Changes Afoot in An Increasingly Web-connected World

Hewlett-Packard Co., announced it will open source the webOS operating system after failing to find the right buyer and price. Elsewhere, mobile device usage is on the rise while new software delivery models aim to eliminate disks and alter pricing.

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• In an odd accompaniment to a last round of TouchPad sales on eBay Inc., HP has decided to open source the webOS operating system. Purchased last year along with the remains of Palm, Inc. for $1.2 billion, webOS will now be available for free to developers and hardware manufacturers similar to the popular Google Inc. Android platform. The TouchPad's heavily-discounted pricing contributed to its popularity as the second-most purchased tablet after Apple Inc.'s wildly successful iPad last quarter. The most-recent round of TouchPad sales is partially meant to help encourage continued webOS development by having a large quantity of devices installed on the market though the company's commitment to helping boost webOS' popularity is far from assured. HP has written off $3.3 billion to cover exiting the business and the lack of the platform's popularity and support among consumers and developers speaks volumes for what the company thinks are its chances are at future success.
• New research shows the rising importance of having smartphone-friendly Web sites and content as mobile device usage is rapidly rising. A shift in consumer habits shows that mobile users are now spending an average of 65 minutes per day viewing the Web via mobile devices. That represents a 30 percent increase from 2010 as smartphones are becoming more prevalent and mobile Web sites more usable. Mobile Internet viewership now outpaces the 44 minutes average time spent looking at print media (magazines and newspapers), though it lags far behind time spent watching television at 4 hours and 34 minutes. Elsewhere, another change in customer behavior was afoot as Apple announced that its Mac App Store has provided than 100 million downloads in less than one year's time.
• Following in the footsteps of its mobile device competitors, Microsoft announced it would include a "kill switch" of sorts to disable and/or remove applications and associated data from user devices in its upcoming Windows Store. The Windows Store terms of use state that Microsoft may take such actions if applications are deemed to put users' security at risk or must be removed for legal reasons, and that the company may refund the purchase price after removal. Apple has not yet removed applications from user devices if it chooses to remove them from its App Store though Google has removed several applications. Just this week, Google removed 22 applications from its Android Market due to security concerns. The Windows Store for Windows 8 is expected to be released concurrent with the operating system's beta release in February 2012. Microsoft also released OneNote for iPad this week, which is the first time that a Microsoft applications has taken full advantage of the tablets screen size.

Experton Group believes HP's move to open source webOS is best it could do with the operating system at this juncture given the lack of interest displayed by other vendors to purchase the assets. Moving operating systems into the open source has mixed results, and given the maturity of iOS and Android, is unlikely to gain much interest in the mainstream.  Developers that choose to improve upon webOS or use it in new devices will find a well-polished, Internet-connected platform, IT executives should expect only very few, if any, products of interest. Mobile device usage has been, and Experton Group believes, will continue to rise over the next few years as compelling solutions encourage more widespread consumer adoption. Enterprises must recognize mobile as a requirement for new and existing internal- and customer-facing applications, and that user interface requirements are very different for mobile than they are for large screens. IT executives need to ensure that due energy is spent designing mobile user interfaces and ensuring appropriate speed and security are present in mobile applications. The success of the Apple Mac Store and the impending release of the Windows Store should be viewed as a harbinger of the times. Online application purchase and delivery, with application storage and updates delivered via the cloud, will soon become the primary delivery method for applications in the near future. IT executives will continue to be able to negotiate enterprise agreements with selected vendors. However; clearing houses such as the Windows Store may have an effect on pricing models, as central storage and cloud delivery offer new value paradigms.