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Let's face it, HP's webOS hardware efforts failed for various reasons that have been discussed ad-infinitum in these forums, and because of the way things happened they burned all kinds of bridges and then ground the ashes into a fine powder. They would likely had a difficult time getting retailers and carriers to be interested in new webOS hardware from them at this time, and are unlikely (some would also say unable) to commit the resources needed to get good, market ready hardware out in from of consumers at this moment.
With that being said though, open webOS is going to need hardware, and so HP needs to look at what they can do to encourage third party OEM's to make dedicated hardware to support it, as opposed to relying on the efforts of hobbyists porting it to other manufacturers' devices.
I think a good way HP can support this effort without having to invest too heavily is to provide reference designs for webOS hardware. For example, they could release the designs and specs for the current TouchPad, TouchPad Go and Pre3 hardware and make it free for anyone who wants to to use them, allowing manufactures to legally clone and further develop these platforms. This would afford third party manufacturers significant savings on both the costs and the time needed to develop new webOS specific hardware, making it an easier decision for them to take the plunge.
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