WebOS, my how you have fallen. You once were a potentially great up and coming mobile operating system. Now you’re nothing more than an unloved step child being passed between foster homes. Right now HP (barely) claims you. And if negotiations with potential buyers go in HP’s favor, one of several potential buyers will be the next.
According to one of Reuters’ sources (link), Oracle is a front runner in the potential sale. If webOS wasn’t dead before, it certainly will be after Oracle gets its cold, stodgy, corporate hands all over it, as they’ll buy it for patents and courtroom firepower alone. And if anyone is going to blow “hundreds of millions” on a dead platform, it would be Oracle, a company that is about as far from “knowing” the consumer market as you can get.
Another potential candidate offered up by Electronista — Sony. While some would classify Sony as another certain death sentence, this pairing could actually be worthwhile. Sony has dabbled with both Windows Mobile and Android over the years, with the latter being their current go-to mobile platform. With that said, Sony’s handsets haven’t really taken off like competing Android products from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. The gorgeous Sony hardware paired with a much better looking (than Android) webOS could help Sony reinvigorate their stagnant mobile division.
Wishes and dreams aside, the sooner we accept reality — that webOS is dead — the better. It was a great run while it lasted. Unfortunately the drive wasn’t there. HP was the platform’s last hope, and they failed — miserably.
The ongoing Google vs. Oracle case was just dealt a serious victory/setback depending on which camp you cheer for. If you recall, Oracle sued Google for pretty much everything under the sun with claims of $100+ million being tossed around. The presiding judge, Hon. William, has ordered both companies to cut back their claims/defenses from 132 to 3, and told Oracle that the tossed out claims can never be tried again.
Currently, there are 132 claims from seven patents asserted in this action, and there are hundreds of prior art references in play for invalidity defenses. This is too much. The following schedule will ensure that only a triable number of these items — three claims and eight prior art references — are placed before the jury in October, all others to be forsaken. Oracle will surrender all of its present infringement claims against Google based on the 129 asserted claims that will not be tried. Oracle may not renew those infringement claims in a subsequent action except as to new products.
Because of that, William has asked both companies whether or not the lawsuit is worth pursuing in this severely reduced state. And considering how little Oracle could win here, we see the judge’s point. Google just got lucky.
The we had earlier concerning some pretty embarrassing examples of proprietary Oracle source code residing within Android source files may not be as serious or damaging as once thought. But Ars Technica’s Ryan Paul highlights that (1) the source code brought up by open source enthusiast and tech patent lawyer, Florian Mueller, is from a third party entity that included in Android’s Open Source Project repository. Second, much of the code in question is available from Sun’s website free of charge. With both of those points highlighted, the previous “wow factor” is quite as astonishing. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how it affects the current, ongoing lawsuit between Google and Oracle.
Be sure to check out Ars Technica’s full, detailed explanation on the matter.
- January 21, 2011 11:34 am
It’s a bad day to be a Google and avid Android distributor (such as your typical cellular carrier), as tech patent aficionado Florian Mueller, has found some rather startling finds whilst trudging through mountains of Android source code. In relation to the ongoing Oracle/Google lawsuit involving Android and it’s apparent patent infringement of Java, Mueller has found 37 Android source files contain blatantly stolen code from Oracle as they are labeled with:
PROPRIETARY / CONFIDENTIAL” and “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE” by Oracle / Sun
Google obviously already knows the code is there. The carriers and other distributors of Android devices, however, aren’t likely to be all that thrilled. Let us not forget that Motorola and HTC have already been hit with patent infringement lawsuits for some of Android’s (and Google’s) little Java-copying issue. Looks like Google’s defense just got a much heavier load to pull…
Those looking forward to a new storage format for OS X will be sorely disappointed. ZFS which was to be the successor to the current HFS+ sometime down the road appears to have been shelved indefinitely. As 9to5 Mac highlights a comment from
