Lets Band Together for once and Secure the future of our beloved OS

[NpManny]

Hey guys. I’m not very known on here but I have an idea. I love WebOS just as much as every other person on here, but I’m tired of waiting to hear something from hp or having big companies buying it. I think that if we all ban together to start a company, then we can secure WebOS's future. This company can license webos which when negotiated with hp would include the patent license with every licensed device. We could license or commission a OEMs design for a phone for the time being in order to get the phones out NOW so people don’t have to wait. We all know that the marketing for webos sucked (although hp did better) but we can market the crap out of if so it’s a known name. We could also not succumb to corporate greed and only sell the devices for enough profit to pay the bills and work on the next devices. We could even try to partner with webos internals because we all know that the guys over there know how to write great code, and fix the bugs that webos has. I’m just a college student majoring in engineering, so I don’t know much of the business type stuff, but with the help of this community we can make a difference and show that when enough people care about something we can make it work.

So who’s willing to help me?

[Unclevanya]

Check PM.

[deesugar]

"Cocaine is a hell of a drug"

[ceveret3]

I would love to be apart of this. I think money is the big issue. If you could get every member on the forum (all 5057970) and get them to donate about $50. That will get you 25 million and that might be enough to get started. But then after that you have to get engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc...

And that's just the beginning. Since you licensing a OS and not building it from scratch you have to fight with Hp about stuff.

I'm also a college student business major and would love to see this happen and be apart of it. But like I said, It's a long shot.

[Suntan]

Two things:

1) It's "band" together. Not ban together.

2) Have a look at OpenPandora for a ...somewhat... similar exercise in crowd development of a handset. I'll let you be the judge if you think it was successful or not.

-Suntan

[HardBeatZ]

Can I be CEO?

[NpManny]

...ok so the title has an error, bt you guys are missing the point. I trulely think that with the right know how that this can be done (no im not on drugs). Right now Hp needs someone to licence the OS. We can be that someone. And that Open Pandora seems to have a differet focus. We have a much more elaborate os. And im sure theres a company out there that would be willing to licence us a device or, we could even use the devices that palm/hp had in the pipeline for the time being till we can design our own devices

[dbodner]

If you could get every member on the forum (all 5057970) and get them to donate about $50. That will get you 25 million

5 million people x $50 = $25 million ?

(not trying to lend credence to the possibility of this idea, just pointing out your math is off)

[JimOhara]

I don't think if it were even possible to raise $25 million, which would be a drop in the bucket since HP paid almost 2 BILLION for WebOs.

[deesugar]

The lack of business knowledge and common sense on this site is frightening.

[ceveret3]

Originally Posted by dbodner

5 million people x $50 = $25 million ?

(not trying to lend credence to the possibility of this idea, just pointing out your math is off)

Typo. I pressed "0" instead of ")"

[Courousant]

Didn't I read that webosinternals raises about $16,000 a year? So you think we can raise about 20,000x that?

and why do we think that the arbitrary amount of 25million would be sufficient to license webos?

I'm not trying to shoot your idea down....well, I guess I am trying to shoot your idea down.


*sorry, that may have been unjustifiably harsh.

[ceveret3]

Originally Posted by Courousant

and why do we think that the arbitrary amount of 25million would be sufficient to license webos?

I'm not trying to shoot your idea down....well, I guess I am trying to shoot your idea down.


*sorry, that may have been unjustifiably harsh.

You are right. I did pull 25 million out my ***. But even if that is not enough. If someone was able to raise that much it will get other parties interested. Like Angel investors and venture capital.

[samab]

Originally Posted by ceveret3

You are right. I did pull 25 million out my ***. But even if that is not enough. If someone was able to raise that much it will get other parties interested. Like Angel investors and venture capital.

The mobile OS war is a huge sink hole --- with Microsoft and Google willing lose billions of dollars on it. That's the reason why HP decided to get out --- and that's why no VC will ever touch it. They are in the business of flipping for a quick profit. They are not going to pour billions of dollars into a huge sink hole.

[ceveret3]

Originally Posted by samab

The mobile OS war is a huge sink hole --- with Microsoft and Google willing lose billions of dollars on it. That's the reason why HP decided to get out --- and that's why no VC will ever touch it. They are in the business of flipping for a quick profit. They are not going to pour billions of dollars into a huge sink hole.

Palm was one of those huge sink holes and Elevation Partners suck by them for the long haul. And I think the Original poster was thinking about building a small company. Not win a mobile os war. Just big enough to make a profit and serve a Niche market.

[NpManny]

Originally Posted by ceveret3

Palm was one of those huge sink holes and Elevation Partners suck by them for the long haul. And I think the Original poster was thinking about building a small company. Not win a mobile os war. Just big enough to make a profit and serve a Niche market.

yea, my main goal is to support webOS and help it grow and mature as a viable OS option for people. Im not trying to be better than IOS or Android in terms or market share (at least not in the beginning) but if someone dosnt step up and buy or licence WebOS from hp we all know that its basicly dead.

[laoh]

Originally Posted by ceveret3

I would love to be apart of this. I think money is the big issue. If you could get every member on the forum (all 5057970) and get them to donate about $50. That will get you 25 million and that might be enough to get started. But then after that you have to get engineers, lawyers, accountants, etc...

And that's just the beginning. Since you licensing a OS and not building it from scratch you have to fight with Hp about stuff.

I'm also a college student business major and would love to see this happen and be apart of it. But like I said, It's a long shot.

Only $725 million to to go...

[samab]

Originally Posted by ceveret3

Palm was one of those huge sink holes and Elevation Partners suck by them for the long haul. And I think the Original poster was thinking about building a small company. Not win a mobile os war. Just big enough to make a profit and serve a Niche market.

Elevation Partners barely made it out with a profit. They might as well put the money in US treasury bonds.

Long haul? EP invested in Dec 2008 and HP announced that they are buying Palm in April 2010. That's less than 18 months.

[Courousant]

Originally Posted by ceveret3

Palm was one of those huge sink holes and Elevation Partners suck by them for the long haul. And I think the Original poster was thinking about building a small company. Not win a mobile os war. Just big enough to make a profit and serve a Niche market.

except that "niche market" that you could potentially make a profit off of ARE THE INVESTORS!

[samab]

Originally Posted by NpManny

yea, my main goal is to support webOS and help it grow and mature as a viable OS option for people. Im not trying to be better than IOS or Android in terms or market share (at least not in the beginning) but if someone dosnt step up and buy or licence WebOS from hp we all know that its basicly dead.

Then it should be dead.

People like to look at these things through rose-coloured glasses. BeOS only looked good because it was compared to Windows 95 (with a kernel dating back to Windows 3.1). In the last 2 years of Be Inc., Windows 2000 and Windows XP came out and beat BeOS left and right in terms of features and performance.

The web in webos is looking like the IE6 browser right now. It is vastly slower than the competition.