Dan Frommer in Forbes:
HP wants what Apple has: One operating system, which it completely controls, at the heart of all of its consumer electronics—phones, tablets, lightweight PCs, perhaps music players, digital cameras, televisions, etc. And HP doesn’t want to have to license it from Microsoft anymore, always having to wait for Redmond to make a move before HP can.
Why will HP’s move to Palm’s webOS fail?
The problem is that WebOS, despite its nice user interface and some nice technical qualities, is a failed platform. Consumers haven’t found a need to buy Palm devices instead of Apple or Android devices.
The result of most successful plans hinge on execution, not strategy. It’s a crowded field of OS wannabes, not completely unlike the CP/M and DOS days of the early 1980s.