With smartphone platforms like Symbian OS, BlackBerry OS, iPhone OS, Windows Mobile and Android being widely available and promoted around the world, you'd think there's no room for Palm's WebOS to grow. Gartner's "Sales to End Users" report for 2009 shows that Palm is gaining ground in a pretty rough market though.
The WebOS numbers are in line with what could have been expected at best in its first half year, more specifically Palm sold 1,112,400 WebOS phones to end users in 2009. That's a strong result given Palm's limited worldwide reach, and it'll especially be interesting to see what the numbers for the first half of 2010 will look like now that Verizon Wireless is selling and promoting the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus.
A few months ago, Palm estimated that the company would be able to sell approximately 10 million WebOS phones in 2010. There are currently approximately 3 million Centro owners that may be looking to upgrade to a WebOS phone this year, and we guess both Centro and Treo fans will be less reluctant to go for a WebOS phone as carrier availability expands.
It's also a fact that Palm is expanding developer opportunities, by introducing native app integration through plug-ins as well as being on the list of platforms that'll take advantage of Adobe technology to create interactive Web apps. These are moves that'll strengthen Palm's Web app ideology significantly.
Google has been quick to respond to Palm's Web app move though, so quick that Android and WebOS will basically go head-to-head when it comes to offering the most compelling Web-oriented smartphone platform in the year ahead. There's no doubt that Palm's WebOS would have had an easier road to success in 2010 if Android hadn't existed.
Rather on the contrary, Google seems to be expanding its effort. In fact, during a recent keynote at the Mobile World Congress, Google's CEO had one clear message: "Mobile comes first". Only time will tell whether that will eventually turn into "Mobile comes first, at the expense of other Web-oriented platforms".
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