HP Buys Palm for the slate market runing JS Apps

Company acquisitions are viewed as potential for the new company. "By acquiring this product the new company can expand into this market of the old company." More often, the acquiring company places value in old company as a defensive move. They don't want to be outflanked in the changing market place.

The world of mobile devices has changed dramatically in the past 12 months, but people for the most part are just getting use to what it was like 12 months ago. Example, everyone thinks App Stores are it.

First big change: App Stores are old school. Native apps are old school. The great new apps will be not be native apps written in Java or Objective-Whatever. They will be HTML5, CSS and JavaScript apps, hereafter called JS Apps. Proof is the NPR app written for iPad using SproutCore as shown at JSConf. The world has changed.

Second, big change: all major phone platforms can run these JS Apps. Blackberry is just getting caught up with the rest of the market on this. So I can now write an JS App and have it run on all phones: iPhone, Android, Palm and Blackberry. Phones are a commodity for the replacement cycle, though consumers don't know that yet.

Third big change: iPad introduced a new form factor. In part, a larger screen and touch area. This is a big deal, maybe. Market may or may not be huge. May or may not kill the laptop. It is a big deal just because it introduces uncertainty into the laptop market.

Now what is HP to do? The laptop market is being nibbled away by mobile phones or maybe being killed. Things that you only use to be able to do on the road with a laptop can now be done on your phone. You still have customers (and a brand) that depend on your products and you have a product gap that maybe huge. You acquire to fill that gap.

But wait, do your customers realize that products are changing (see above)? Not yet. But you'll be ready for them. Immediately, HP can tell customers we sell phones too. Buying number four in the market never works (see GE and Jack Welch). What was HP thinking?

Go back to third big change: new form factor. The large screens are a field HP knows well - take the keyboard off that laptop and you have a slate. How do you enter this new market? How do you become a leader? Do you take the Microsoft operating system, whatever the name is, and compete with Apple that way? Are you crazy? Too late, too old school. Microsoft has not gotten this right in 20 years. Microsoft is no help this time.

What HP does is work with the trend that mobile devices are becoming a commodity. HP knows that business. They build a slate that runs the JS Apps that also run on the iPhone, the iPad. It also runs the JS Apps written for Android and the Blackberry. Palm has an excellent development platform and team for JS Apps.

So HP buys Palm. They slap the Palm (Pilot) name on the new slate that runs these JS Apps. They are instantly number two in the new market where the App Store advantage is losing marketing power.

And besides, Palm is a better name than tongue twister iPad (or was that iPod). And look at what an old brand name (AT&T) did for Cingular. Brand names are important.

HP bought Palm not because of the phone market, but to hedge their bets in the maybe emerging market of the Palm slate. I can not wait to buy one.

Open House Crank

Open houses are a game. People walk in and they are watched because so few are serious buyers. And it must be boring for agents sitting in a house for 3 hours when you'd rather be with your family and you know the odds to getting a buyer a slim. But too many real estate agents give up too early and lose focus. Even though I'm in a T-shirt and bike shorts I have the money to buy this house! I'm getting tired of your attitude and your commission!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 Best and Worst Crank

1. Tim-Berners Lee started it. He said a list of links is content.
2. PowerPoint promoted the a. idea b. concept c. meme
3. Yahoo started with lists and a Google list is common as bread
4. Digg.com is just full of 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 Best and Worst content
5. HTMLers love lists and dl, ol, ul and li
6. CSSers love to distort lists into navigation or calendars or read A List Apart
7. CNet is video podcasting even to TiVo, the top 5 or 10 lists every 7 days
8. NY Times and WP love to tell you about the most read, emailed or blogged lists
9. Keith Olbermann even delivers news via the Countdown list of stories
10. Are we so 2 dimensional that a top 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 list is how we communicate 2 each other?

Headline Writers Crank

NY Times posted an article today with a headline of "Can She Turn Yahoo Into, Well, Google?" I'll ignore the question about why Yahoo would want to be Google which Susan Decker addressed previously: "We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot of share from Google"(see Clickety Clack).

Many times we forget that that person who writes the story does not write the headline. So no shame on Miguel Helft, but the headline is awful bordering on disgusting. Can we not do better in this age when most college graduates are women? Would the headline write had written "Can He Turn ...".

AT&T Crank

Didn't we already break up AT&T? Guess that is like asking "Didn't we already invade Iran?" Can this administration keep ignoring history? I guess they will. After the AT&T monopoly breakup we saw an explosion of telecommunication innovations and options that was good for the markets, good for the consumer and good for business. Now AT&T is huge again with less competitors. And it is getting bigger with the proposed purchase of their competitor: Cellular One. Enough is enough even if the iPhone is now available to more rural customers. And if you haven't notice, cell phone contracts are getting longer and bills are getting bigger. Business consolidation may not give us a pure monopoly but it sure raises the barriers to entry and prices.

And while I'm at it, what about that AT&T name? Cingular changed their name to AT&T. Marketing research probably shows that more people know how to spell AT&T than Cingular so the merged company took over the old name. Simple. Three letters and a squiggle. But I suggest they change the name just slightly to AT$T. It is only money out of your pocket.

iphone Crank

Since this is iphone day ( 1 i.p.), I thought I'd move some attitude to my blog and be cranky like Dave Winer and John Dvorak. I've long been accused of being cranky by friends and co-workers. So on to the wonder of iphone and the religous apple.

So you pay about $1,000 so Jobs can smirk some more? This certainly isn't capitalism where the marketplaces is logical. There is no logic to sitting on your butt for 36 hours waiting for some nerdy AT&T employees to take your credit card while they've been playing with the phone since noon! This is mania and running with the herd and not wanting to get to the high school chess club meeting late.

Wonder how many AT&T staff hand in their resignations today and walk out with their iphone. Talk about cutting in line!