H.P.’s TouchPad, Some Say, Was Built on Flawed Software - NYTimes.com

H.P.’s TouchPad, Some Say, Was Built on Flawed Software - NYTimes.com

This is a fascinating article, in particular:


Mr. Mercer gained fame at Apple as a software designer for the first iPod, and Palm recruited him in 2007 to help create the Pre. After some internal debate, the company chose to have WebOS rely on WebKit, an open-source software engine used by browsers to display Web pages. Mr. Mercer said that this was a mistake because it prevented applications from running fast enough to be on par with the iPhone. But a former member of the WebOS app development team said the core issue with WebOS was actually Palm’s inability to turn it into a platform that could capture the enthusiasm and loyalty of outside programmers. There were neither the right leaders nor the right engineers to do the job, said this person, who declined to be named because he still had some ties to H.P.

From concept to creation, WebOS was developed in about nine months, this person said, and the company took some shortcuts. With a project like this, programmers typically start by creating the equivalent of building blocks that can be reused and combined to create different applications. But with WebOS, Palm employees initially constructed each app from scratch. Later, they made such blocks, but they were overhauled once by Palm and then again by H.P., forcing programmers to relearn how to build WebOS apps.

Another issue was recruiting. In 2009, it was hard to find programmers who had a keen understanding of WebKit, Mr. Mercer said, and Apple and Google had already snatched up most of the top talent.



The narrative I read is that a community failed to coalesce around the project and it did so because a) the code was inapt--proprietary, and architected with a proprietary developer group in mind; and b) there was no forethought and no figure or apparatus to bring in developers.

Apple's iOS is famously closed but the charisma of Jobs transcended that huge fence because it promised an exciting market--the point not being (or not being only) money but the excitement of others using as well as devising competing products. That's a compelling, intoxicating complex and its produced wonderful things. (We see a more diluted form of this in Android, simply because Android utterly lacks a charismatic lead who mysteriously figures the market and all its promises.)

So, what can be done to fix this problem with WebOS? Probably, the answer lies in the description of the problem. And the same could be said for RIM's new OS. To form a successful community of app developers there has to be the exciting flux that what one does will be appreciated not only by the consumer (sigh....) but by one's peers--who, if they like the idea, will probably try to one-up it: which is to say, take it seriously, even if they think they can do what you did better.

Put another way, it's not about consumers only. It's really about engaging an open community. The former leads to what we've seen and will continue to see (just wait for MSFT/Nokia?): irrelevance. The latter to ... interesting life and huge markets.