The webOS was tested by HP running on an iPad 2. The result was a 100% boost in performance compared to the TouchPad. This meant that the hardware within the HP tablet did not perform as well as expected. This created a number of problems for the tablet’s development team.
Recently, HP announced that it would no longer be supporting its webOS, which it purchased from Palm. This meant the end of its line of smartphones and tablets running on the platform.
Is hardware the only reason why HP was so unhappy with the platform? We’re not so sure.
If there’s anything we’ve learned about tablets, is that it’s not all about hardware. The greatest example of this is the Motorola Xoom going up against the Apple iPad 2. The Xoom was equipped with more powerful hardware, but still failed to bring down the world’s most popular tablet. Why is this? It has everything to do with the simplicity of use and a wide range of tablet-optimized apps in the Apple App Store.
With the webOS, users enjoyed the ease of use from Apple and the flexibility of the Honeycomb OS by Google’s Android. However, there was one flaw that proved to be its downfall. It had a minute number of tablet-optimized apps in its app offering. Maybe if HP developed more apps for its webOS platform, the story may have been different.
