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09/08/2010, 07:29 AM
#282
You know, what scares me is the prospect that when it lands with a new phone, the tech blogs will do a piece on both, and write variations on "webOS 2.0 is very interesting but the fact that webOS is not widely used doesn't make it interesting to developers or consumers, and while we wish Palm the best of luck with this excellent product, we doubt this will be able to take away customers from more mature systems, which will also likely get similarly strong hardware very soon" - which was what they said about the original launch, is a beautiful self-fulfilling prophecy and doesn't compare at all to the euphoria seen in many other reviews, where problems and faults are found but quickly downplayed.
It'll also be interesting to see how quickly the actual release news will drop from the Engadget or Gizmodo index pages. Go to engadget.com right now and check out the splash page. The BB Torch still has a direct link at the start of the page after how many weeks, but none of the big webOS 2.0 announcements they published in the last few days are anywhere to be found.
In a tech media environment that has actively called for Apple to make an iPhone in the iPod's image for years before they actually did, an environment that has been cherishing every bit of Google news for years now, there are few to no mainstream information propagators with a personal connection or interest in webOS.
Journalists and bloggers are people also, and like all people more likely to dwell on topics that they personally like.
Of course you're going to write about the iPhone a lot if you love it, and if someone's been in a line of business where any self-respecting professional has used a Mac since 1988, how can anyone expect that person not to feel a certain sense of pride after that underdog company they've rooted for since forever has finally inherited the world?
But that also means that webOS, no matter its actual, rational merits, is a bit of a redheaded stepchild to most.
Say what you will about features missing or implemented, but emotion matters. Hard. And I don't think that things in that department will become better now that webOS is sold by HP, which - bless its soul - I doubt will ever be able to win over the hearts and minds of people in the ways that Apple with its quarter century worth of engaging underdog narrative or Google with its lightspeed ascent to total ubiquity have.
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Originally Posted by flash4o
