HP buys a Palm ? Big deal...

$1.2 billion for Palm Inc., the sale itself a non-event, 3Com and its spin-off reunited under the Hewlett-Packard umbrella... times have definitely changed over the past 10 years.

Even if the Palm + HP combo can propose a seamless handset-PDA-tablet-laptop-desktop platform, this episode is not likely to bring real disruption to the market. And to me, it doesn't mean that HP is becoming smart : it simply confirms that smartphones are becoming if not commodities at least more and more common things.

No change for Microsoft : WebOS won't kill Windows Mobile by itself. But the eventual emergence of a more consistant open / Linux-based alliance remains more than ever the base case scenario.

No change for Google : it still needs to succeed regardless of the OS, and Android / the Open Hanset Alliance are bound to merge with some rivals anyway.

No change for Apple : Cupertino still needs to change its strategy if it wants to become THE leader, which I doubt. And there's still a lot of money to make where it sits (and moves), including as an editor.

No change for Research In Motion : it still can stick to its profitable niche, or accept a nice offer.

And most of all, no change for Nokia : the leader in hardware and mobile OS has not been acting like one for too long.


mot-bile 2010