HP denies shipping TouchPad tablets with Android
Probe launched
HP is investigating why an unknown number of TouchPad WebOS tablets may have been sold with Android on board.
It denies shipping TouchPads with Android installed, even in error.
Claims that some TouchPads had gone out with Android loaded in place of HP's WebOS recently did the rounds on the internet.
That prompted not unreasonable grumbles from the open source community - quite a few members of which have bought TouchPads when HP sold them off cheap - that HP should then have posted its source code.
That would help coders working to port Android to the HP tablet.
In response to a request for said source code, Phil Robb, who runs HP's open source operation, emailed to say the Android release - if it took place at all - was not done with HP's say-so.
"We have confirmed that HP never authorised the distribution of any version of Android on the HP TouchPad," he told coders.
"From a review of our manufacturing process, we believe that all TouchPad units have been shipped out of manufacturing with the WebOS operating system only, and that no TouchPad units were shipped with Android, even by mistake."
If any TouchPads have arrived in users' hands with Android on board, it was installed on top of WebOS "by some person or persons unknown… strictly against the policy and authorisation of HP", Robb wrote.
"It is a significant detriment to HP and HP’s participation in and relationship with the open source community to have non-authorised Android software delivered on HP TouchPad devices," he said. ®
COMMENTS
scared of the shareholders
HP are scared of the shareholders - could it be true that HP could have installed android and then sold for $199 instead of $99 ?
We all know it flopped 'cos of webos
To me it reads more like...
"By insisting that HP live up to the terms of the various open source licences involved, the Open Source Community is damaging its relationship with HP. We reserve the right to modify everything for our own benefit and never give anything back unless we can make an absolute mint off of it. Your desire to own the hardware you purchase is a detriment to HP and its attempts to fleece you for the good of shareholders.”
Either they have been bought, modified and sold on
or they continued to be made in the same factory without HP's blessing.
uhh hang on now...
Comparing them to Samsung is a touch unfair...
Samsung actually manages to make phones, TV's, laptops and other stuff that is pretty competitive and often enough technically well ahead of everybody, including Sony and Apple anyway. Sony and Apple have been a bit alike, selling year old components in a shiny package for today's premium prices. Sony is actually shaping up a bit on that, finally, probably cause they got out-done on their own trick by Apple.
Apple only sued Samsung, cause Samsung wouldn't give them dibs on their Amoled factory output. Why, with all the lawsuits, do you think Samsung is still manufacturing Apple's Arm CPU's and the new iPhone 4s is full of Samsung chips? Cause nobody else can make it for the dumb fabless bastards.
235 billion in cash, but too cheap to build themselves a Fab, thats Crapple for you.
The outsourcing works brilliantly for a while, let the suppliers take most of the risk for small profit, while raking it in with the consumers. But then, the guys who actually build the cool tech start wondering why they should let some uppity design shop milk all the profits, while they're making do with the slim earnings of african cotton pickers. They recognize the modern colonialism and suddenly, there's sand in the gears and competition gets tough as they keep their best technology for their own products, like with the Galaxy SII etc.
Because they aren't forced to rely on western bankers...
The Rothchilds and their kind may have won in the west, cause western democracies failed in regards to keeping control of their money. But in Asia, it might not be such a cakewalk, one can hope. Stuff like having JFK shot won't suffice there, cause the Chinese had enough time to analyze what went down in the U.S. I doubt if the Chinese government is going to let private bankers steal their lunch.
