Frankly I did not expect Palm to steal the show, the well-anticipated event was the MacWorld.
MacWorld’s biggest announcement  was that the iTunes will become DRM-free, a great move but that’s all.
From Palm on the other hand we did expect a new OS named  “Nova” that will have a slick and smooth UI, and yes Palm did announce a new OS but that was just the tip of an ice-berg.

Palm announced the “webOS” a mobile operating system that puts the “Mobile OS war” in a new light.
Do not get me wrong, Palm is not in good shape at all, just look at Palm’s financial report which indicates more than 500 million dollars of net loss, and a 100 million dollars investment that eclipses just a bit the bad situation of Palm.

The iPhone, created a situation that developers were just waiting for Apple to release the Platform SDK, and the rest is history.
Android backed up with the internet giant Google and about 60 companies including manufactures and carriers, offers  developers a whole Eco-system that can start on one device and ends up with 20.
And Symbian that’s come with the experience of years and millions of devices that are already out there.
It seems that the Palm’s WebOS will tell developers something like this ” Hi we got a cool device, and developing apps is just an ease give it a try”
That is the crucial point for Palm, if developers will leave the WebOS and will put all their efforts on iPhone or Android based device, The Pre can be an amazing device but soon there will be a better one.
Or, developers will  pay attention to the WebOS and the PRE will be just like its ancestor, the Pre will die and long live the WebOS.
Meanwhile all is just an expectation and we will just have to wait and see, if  the PRE, is just the begging or the end of Palm.

BTW Palm apps can not be called WebApps, Apple already uses this name for the web based iPhone apps.

Thats it, on Tuesday the expectation ended and the long awaited mobile phone the so-called Gphone was officially announced.
I can’t remember such anticipation for a mobile device rather than the iPhone, of course.
The G1 is a product of HTC, T-Mobile and Google, 4 executives set down and explained why the G1 will be such a hit, However it seemed that Google was not so enthusiastic, go ask Sergey Brin and Larry Page that came to say hello and roll out.
Do not get me wrong, That is Google’s first mobile phone, but for them unlike T-Mobile and HTC, it is just the beginning, The beginning of a new era.

The iPhone for example changed the mobile industry and for the first time the hardware was not the issue.
It does not matter how much megapixel the camera is and if there are stereo speakers or not.
Until the iPhone came hardware was the issue, than apple made it all about software and more important user interface.
So which era has began now that the first Android phone is out?! It is the mobile OS era.
I am sorry to disappoint you but I do not think that Apple thought at first to release the OSX SDK for developers.
Jobes, thinking as a centralist as always, wanted to alter the mobile industry like he did with the iPod, nothing less.
He did not notice the MAIN issue in mobile consumption which is the content and that the quality of experience is influenced by the variety of possibilities.
After the iPhone hit the market, it was noticed that the beautiful “box” itself isn’t enough and that Apple is not a services development company.
Back to the Android and the OS era, Google want to be on any mobile phone, where is it an Android based phone or even an iPhone.

This fact brings me to my main point, Google does not want to create full web experience mobile phones, there are already enablers that do just that, take a look at Opera, Skyfire and yes again at the iPhone.
Google just want to build a mobile OS, It have all the services to do that like mail, maps, IM etc and the rest will fall into the developers hands.
Google’s Android comparison to the iPhone is really like comparing Symbian to J2ME.
Google tries to enable others to create services but still, Google still think as the player that came after the iPhone and try to clone the AppStore’s business model.
Only in the case that Google removes all restrictions and barriers and attract the operators and the users, they will be able to take control over the mobile OS market and operate as the Microsoft of the mobile world.
If Apple continues with the same attitude, they will be the Apple of the mobile OS market, nice, shaped, with no significant market share.
So enough with my analysis what do you think?

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