HP + Palm WebOS ? I say no for now

People start to look at what HP+Palm would introduce to the world, especially those who are eagerly looking for an iP* killer. It does look promising: a hardware giant + an "old" mobile champion, they can bring anything to the world. But I still say no for now, I don't see a chance. Why? contents and platform:

The success of Apple's iP* was not only because of the amazing mobile computing machine. It was the success of an ecosystem -- iTunes with a world of contents, App store with a world of applications and games, Apple with a small but growing world of services (MobileMe). [yes, sure, till now Apple still leverages Google for some services.]

HP+Palm may deliver a product that could be far more amazing than anyone expects, but they don't have accumulation of experiences of providing contents and hosting services. If they partner with Yahoo, things change. This could be the writer's big bet for the coming 5 years: Think about the huge user base, Flickr, search, finance...

While HP skips Win7 Slate and embraces Palm, Microsoft, the real giant, is digging its internal sources: Win Phone 7 + Xbox LIve + Zune platform. Strong services, strong software and Xbox gaming & live platform, it seems the only needed effort is synergy. Yeah, that should be the most difficult part. Microsoft is sometimes slow but always smart. So another bet: the history always repeats itself in an amazing way.