The death of webOS has been proclaimed loudly and often ever since HP announced that it was donating the Linux-based mobile operating system to the open source community, but like the Energizer Bunny, it seems to keep going.
Gram, it seems, will not focus on producing consumer hardware. Rather, “software, user experience, the cloud, engineering, and partnering” will serve as its core focus, which will apparently involve not just webOS but also Enyo and the webOS group’s cloud services team.
Ultimately, the goal is to create “a technology that will unleash the freedom of the Web,” Gram reportedly says.
‘We Are in Stealth Mode’
More details, however, are so far hard to come by.
Employees are reportedly being asked to tell outsiders that “Gram is a new company. We are in stealth mode on our product offering.”
AllThingsD was able to confirm that the leaked memo behind webOS Nation’s report is authentic, so it sounds as though the basics could be true.
A public roll-out of Gram could happen before the end of September, according to webOS Nation.
New Hope for WebOS?
HP’s control of webOS, of course, dates back to its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm back in 2010.
Though so little has been revealed, I still can’t help but take this latest move as encouraging news for the future of webOS, which could gain new life through this freshly independent existence.
As more details emerge, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.