[rollingrock1988]

Sprint Snubs WebOS, Deals Blow to HP - Mobiledia

Sprint reportedly will not carry the Pre 3 phone, in a move that may curtail Hewlett-Packard's attempts to grow the popularity of WebOS.

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In fact, the Overland Park, Kan.-based carrier allegedly has no plans to carry any future WebOS-based devices. Sprint did not comment on the decision, but industry analysts speculate the decision stems from disappointing Palm Pre sales last year.

Sprint's move away from WebOS comes at a time when HP is upping its effort to spread adoption of the operating system. Last month, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company announced it planned to license WebOS to other manufacturers, like Samsung and LG, to widen the platform's use.

HP hopes more consumers with WebOS devices will entice developers to create more apps for the fledgling mobile operating system.

The company's TouchPad tablet launched with just under 400 native apps, a far cry from Apple's 100,000 programs for the iPad. WebOS now has a more robust 6,200 apps, but still pales in comparison to iOS and Android's numbers.

HP's goal to spread WebOS and make it a serious competitor in the mobile platform market is already an uphill battle, but news that Sprint has no plans to support its efforts make it even tougher.

Sprint may also have hurt itself by the decision. Customers who don't like Android may have seen WebOS as an alternative to stay with the carrier. Now, by championing only Android, Sprint offers little differentiation among its products, gicing customers even less reason to jump to another carrier.

Sprint's snub is a setback for a company trying to make headway in a crowded market. If HP can't find a way to put WebOS in consumers' hands, then developers will abandon the platform, leaving the struggling OS to die a quick, and forgettable, death.

That is way too bad. Way too bad. I like WebOS

[Fubaz]

well Sprint really pushes Android and Blackberry, its nice to see this and hopefully they keep their strategy the same!

[papped]

Not surprising considering the Pre release went pretty horribly on Sprint and then the other carriers got upgraded hardware versions of the same devices that made the Sprint versions look worse shortly after...

[Q]

According to some sources, it was people within HP who felt burned and said no to Sprint, while Sprint would have carried it had they had the chance.