Everyone has a slab phone. The physical keyboards of the WebOS phones set them apart. I wore out my Veer and was looking for something similar. There isn't anything. Everything is a slab phone and they just keep getting bigger. For people who use their phones for work, the go-to apps are e-mail and texting. I need a physical keyboard for that because of the constant errors of virtual ones. I also need a phone that is a comfortable size to carry in my pocket. A 5" screen isn't what I need. The only reason Blackberry is still in business is because HP's CEO's were too dense to realize that is what they were going after. The need is still there. There is even less competition. Motorola used to have 'Pro' versions of their Android phones with keyboards, but no longer. Why not go after the niche market that wants a smaller phone with a physical keyboard? Why not target Blackberry? Why not just usurp Hurd's WebOS strategy, since HP could no longer understand it once he left?
WebOS phones weren't the strategy with WebOS, Synergy was. The corporate market was the target. HP had WebOS running on phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and printers. By using Synergy to simplify corporate phone and computer configurations, HP planned on selling a lot of computers, phones, tablets, and most importantly, Synergy servers and services.
This message took twice as long to type on a tablet with a virtual keyboard than it would have taken on my Veer.
