HP’s webOS goes open source officially

Fans of webOS will be pleased to know that HP has decided not to kill the platform. Instead they are going the Android route by making webOS an open source platform from which manufacturers will be able to license it and put it on their phones. In a way they are learning from some of Android’s mistakes by declaring that they will ensure that there will not be any fragmentation, although we guess we will have to wait and find out.

At the moment it does not appear that there are any manufacturers who have expressed interest in licensing webOS, but perhaps we will start hearing some news soon. Will HP succeed with an open source webOS much like Android, or has the webOS name been tainted due to HP’s recent failures with the HP TouchPad webOS-based tablet? Only time will tell, but for now who’s happy that webOS is still alive and kicking, and open source to boot?