This year has already seen the death of Microsoft’s Kin smartphone; but if Engadget’s Joshua Topolsky is right, add Palm to the list. What, you say? Palm, which has been bought out by HP, looks to have made a good software upgrade with with webOS 2 but the hardware is pre-2010 with screens at 3.2″ max width versus 4.3″ at higher DPIs. But also battery life and readability are also only marginally improved. Also there is no mention of dollar discounts or HP smartphones using webOS 2. As a result – the prospects for Palm in the smartphone arena are not good. Checkout the comments at the bottom of the Engadget review. So what does this say about webOS at HP? Not good for the OS that is supposed to replace Windows 7 on HP’s tablets, smartphones, and slates/netbooks.
Update: See the problems that Sprint, which offered the original Pre, is having with its customer base on question of support for Palm Pre 2.