Samsung will “never” license or buy webOS from HP, CEO Choi Gee Sung explained at IFA on Friday. Shooting down rumors of a buyout, he told the media that the company instead preferred to pour effort into its Bada smartphones and was working to improve the OS “harder than outside people think.” He told Pocket-lint and others in attendance that he saw phone builders moving too quickly get access to another OS, likely alluding to Nokia’s licensing Windows Phone.
“It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” he said.
Samsung is often known for wanting to bring as much of its own touch to an OS as possible, whether the completely self-developed Bada or the heavy customizations on Android. Bada also already has more much more share than webOS and even Samsung’s other licensed OS pick, Windows Phone.
HP has kept webOS in limbo since deciding to back out on hardware in the fall. It has been open to licensing and possibly a sale, but hasn’t been definite or given a clue as to the buyer. Few in the traditional phone world would be obvious candidates, although companies that regularly use multiple operating systems like HTC or LG might be options.
Without such support, the platform is more likely to go to a company that might not have any hardware plans in the near term or that might simply buy it for the technology. Speculation has raised the possibility of Facebook getting for an eventual mobile OS strategy, but few others are on the horizon.
