HP denies shipping TouchPad tablets with Android
Probe launched
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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.
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