In the past, if you wanted to use webOS you'd need to buy hardware made by Palm/HP. However, HP CEO Leo Apotheker today revealed that that may not always be the case. In an interview at D9, Apotheker said that HP would consider licensing webOS to third parties and that "It’s not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices." When HTC was used an example webOS licensee, Apotheker said that that's a possibility that they'd "entertain." Speaking at the Qualcomm Uplinq conference today, webOS head Jon Rubenstein also said that HP might be interested in licensing webOS to some select companies.
Although it's not clear which companies, if any, would be interested in making a webOS-powered device, it'd be pretty interesting to see a webOS phone from the likes of HTC or Samsung, Plus, the arrival of such products could help boost webOS's market share a bit, which hasn't exactly soared in the past. Would any of you be interested in picking up a webOS handset if it were manufactured by a company other than HP? Which manufacturer would you most like to see create a webOS phone?
