Is Palm dead? And did webOS go to HP to die?

Anybody here, seen my old friend Palm? Can you tell me where he's gone? Palm freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young. You know, I just looked around and Palm's gone.

All right, HP. I realize your ex-CEO got caught with his pants down. Your curent CEO is involved in some nasty lawsuit and/or on the run, and you're a big company with a proud history and lots of smart people all singularly focused on the grand world-beating, paradigm-shifting mission of getting everyone on the planet to use high-margin ink. 

Still, shouldn't you have done *anything* with Palm? Anything? It's been an entire year now since you acquired Palm and its webOS for smartphones (and maybe tablets and other things) for a cool $1.2 billion. Where is it? Remember this statement from the initial announcement?

The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm’s unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications.

Yet for all your scale and strength and Palm's "unparalleled" webOS platform...nothing. Oh, sure, once a quarter it seems that the one exec from Palm who stayed with HP comes out and talks big plans. And, yes, I realize there's that crappy HP Veer coming out later this month. 

Is that all you got? Really?

In the year plus since you bought Palm, Apple has again redefined the market for connected mobile devices. Android has captured the top spot in this rapidly expanding, highly dynamic market. And taken such handset makers like Samsung, Sony, Motorola and others along for the ride.

Big, lumbering Microsoft released a smartphone platform, Windows Phone, that may actually be superior to webOS! And they have developed a tidy little app and media ecosystem while you have dithered. Plus there's that whole Nokia alliance.

Even Blackberry has managed to grow, to release some solid devices and has offered glimpses at least of its future.

While HP, er Palm, er webOS has done what? 

My guess is you probably have convinced yourself that with your "scale" and "financial strength" you can just bully your way into this market. The market that represents the *future* of personal computing. 

You are dead wrong. And I suspect that when you finally do show up for a fight, and get your ass knocked down on the ground, you'll quickly give up, and vanish.

Firstly, you're no longer all that relevant. Everyone's gone to the cloud. PCs are rapidly becoming a legacy industry. Apple, yes, that Apple, has gotten bigger. Google is taunting Microsoft. It's a whole new world.

Perhaps you believe there's room for still one more smartphone platform. You know, be that "third" operating system after Apple's iOS and Google's Android. Heard it all before, HP. That willful refusal to acknowledge Windows Phone or Blackberry/QNX or MeeGo or Symbian or any Linux variant. 

Or even Samsung's Bada.

You ought to think of Bada, HP. Because that's what Palm could have become had you not buried the company in your basement. And I can assure you, you are no match even for Bada.

Consider that Samsung is a *critical* supplier of smartphone screens and hardware for multiple smartphone handset makers. Including Apple. Consider that they have global distribution, relations with most carriers. Oh, and they're the big dog of Android smartphones.

Even Bada, which only a few people in the US have probably even heard of, is kicking Palm's ass.

In the first quarter of this year, just over 100 million smartphones were shipped. Anything with Palm and/or webOS was too tiny to measure and bundled with "Other". Not Samsung's Bada. They shipped 3.5 million units, per research firm Canalys. Most of which stayed near home, in Asia -- which is the world's fastest growing smartphone region. More smartphones are sold in Asia then EMEA and far more than North America.

Don't fool yourself, though, HP. Bada isn't just some middling platform in Asia. They are moving into Europe as well:

‘Samsung’s own operating system development, combined with the branding and investment in its Wave smart phones at mid-tier prices, has led to good uptake in developed markets, such as France, the UK and Germany.'

While you've played with yourself, in less than a year, giant Samsung has not only become king of Android, but they've made Bada a bigger platform than webOS and have built a sustainable ecosystem.

About 15,000 apps. Over 100 million app downloads. And growing. And ready access to some of the best hardware. And "scale and financial strength."

What you set out to do with Palm, HP, can be done. Was done. It was done by Samsung. Using an organic operating system. Not some $1 billion plus acqusition. 

There was a time, a brief moment in the early days of the smartphone wars, when Palm and its webOS platform had a chance to thrive. I believe that time has passed. And the few Palm devices that get released into the wild, will quickly vanish. Kept merely as collectibles.