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Hewlett-Packard plans to keep the webOS platform it acquired from Palm but will make the operating system open source, allowing developers and others to modify and expand on the platform. The decision brings a sense of finality to the fate of webOS, which has been uncertain ever since HP effectively killed its webOS device business in August.

Interestingly, HP also said it plans to build webOS-powered gadgets in the future. Although the company was reluctant to provide a specific timeframe and details, HP CEO Meg Whitman said HP likely will sell webOS tablets in 2013, according to TechCrunch. Whitman told The Verge that HP will not make smartphones. HP plans to build Windows 8 tablets next year.

That HP is planning webOS tablets comes as a surprise. The company in August discontinued sales of its webOS-powered TouchPad tablet (as well as its smartphone business), citing weak demand.

As for HP’s plans to open source webOS, the company said it plans to continue to be active in the development and support of the platform. HP also will make the underlying code of webOS available under an open source license. The company said this will allow developers, partners, HP engineers and other hardware makers to enhance webOS and bring new versions to market.

HP will work with the open source community and will look to foster “good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation.” Additionally, HP will contribute ENYO, the application framework for webOS, to the open source community in “the near future.”

In an interview with The Verge, Whitman declined to discuss possible layoffs involved in the move.

In November HP wrote down a total of .67 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter related to its decision to wind down its webOS device business, the company said, giving a financial postscript to its .2 billion acquisition of Palm in 2010.

HP said it booked a total charge to its operating income of 8 million related to the closure of the webOS device business, a move announced Aug. 18. On the company’s earnings conference call for the fiscal fourth quarter, HP CFO Catherine Lesjak said the charge consisted of a net revenue reduction of 2 million related to a sales incentive program, 8 million in cost of sales due to supplier-related obligations and inventory reserves and million in operating expenses and restructuring charges. In addition to that charge, HP also was hit with an impairment expense of 5 million against a carrying value of goodwill and purchased intangible assets related to the acquisition of Palm.

For more:
- see this TechCrunch article
- see this Verge article
- see this release
- see this AllThingsD article
- see this GigaOM post

Related Articles:
HP writes down nearly .7B in losses on Palm investment
Report: HP wants to sell webOS for ‘hundreds of millions’ of dollars
HP to decide webOS future in ‘next couple of months’
Report: Amazon close to acquiring webOS assets from HP
Selling webOS: The toughest job in the mobile industry
HP kills webOS device business

FierceWireless

LightSquared said it will use a 10 MHz chunk of L-band spectrum that is in the lower portion of its spectrum holdings to launch its wholesale LTE network as a way to mitigate GPS interference concerns.

The company, which has been embroiled in a fight with the GPS industry and government agencies over how much its network interferes with GPS receivers, said its proposed solution will be a way to preserve GPS and get its network off the ground. The proposed solution also comes as reports indicate that LightSquared has signed a far-reaching network-sharing deal with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S).

Under LightSquared’s proposed solution, the company will no longer launch its network in a 10 MHz chunk of its spectrum that tests showed caused interference with many GPS receivers. Instead, LightSquared said it recently inked a deal with Inmarsat, the satellite firm that controls the lower spectrum band, which will allow LightSquared to get access to the lower spectrum band sooner than it initially planned. LightSquared received approval from the FCC last week to delay until July 1 a final report on the GPS interference tests the company and a GPS technical working group have conducted.

LightSquared owns spectrum in the L-band in 1525 through 1559 MHz bands and 1626.5 to 1660.5 MHz bands, and Martin Harriman, an executive vice president at LightSquared, told FierceWireless that the company will use the channel from 1526 to 1536 MHz for the downlink. LightSquared said the proposed solution will allow it to maintain its business plan; the company has said it intends to launch commercial service in the first half of next year.

“Test results show this lower block of frequencies is largely free of interference issues with the exception of a limited number of high precision GPS receivers that are specifically designed to rely on LightSquared’s spectrum,” LightSquared said in a statement. “In its original plan, LightSquared planned to move into this other frequency block as its business grew over the next two to three years.”

An FCC spokesman declined to comment. Jim Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble, a founding member of the Coalition to Save Our GPS, which is opposed to LightSquared’s network launch, said the company’s announcement “borders on the bizarre.”

“LightSquared’s supposed solution is nothing but a ‘Hail Mary’ move,” he said in a statement. “Confining its operation to the lower MSS band still interferes with many critical GPS receivers in addition to the precision receivers that even LightSquared concedes will be affected. The government results submitted to date already prove this, and the study group report will also confirm this. It is time for LightSquared to move to out of the MSS band.” 

In addition to using the lower spectrum bands, LightSquared said it will modify its FCC license to reduce the maximum authorized power of its base-station transmitters by over 50 percent. The company said doing this will limit it to the power it was authorized to use in 2005 and will further protect GPS receivers. Harriman said LightSquared’s solution is a “sensible” one that will allow it to move forward.

In the meantime, LightSquared said it will not use the spectrum it originally planned to use for the launch of its network. The company said it will work closely with the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, as well as the relevant U.S. government agencies and commercial GPS users, to explore “mitigation possibilities and operational alternatives” that will allow LightSquared to expand its business into the contested spectrum.

“We’ve spent a lot of time testing and not a lot of time analyzing what the other options are,” Harriman said, referring to solutions for interference from the upper portion of LightSquared’s spectrum. He said the company will have to work with filter manufacturers, look at antenna design and other options. “This solution buys some time to sit down and think through the ways” to make the upper spectrum bands useable, he said. 

For more:
- see this release

Related Articles:
Sprint consummates LTE network-sharing deal with LightSquared
Analysis: LightSquared’s options include deal with Sprint, bid for TerreStar
LightSquared gets extension on GPS report, inks deal on Sprint network sharing
Dish Network lands .38B bid for TerreStar, reportedly outflanking MetroPCS
Seybold’s Take: Why LightSquared’s proposed system will interfere with GPS
LightSquared CEO Ahuja confirms talks with Sprint
Two government agencies say LightSquared’s network interferes with GPS

FierceWireless

Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) said its data pricing for the LTE version of the Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) Xoom tablet will be the same as its EV-DO version of the gadget. However, it’s unclear whether this means that all future Verizon LTE tablets will have the same data pricing as the carrier’s EV-DO tablets.

Verizon’s pricing came to light in the details it provided for the new tablet, which recently went on sale. Xoom users will be able to upgrade their device to support Verizon’s LTE service for free sometime in the second quarter. (The Xoom currently supports Verizon’s EV-DO network.) Customers will have to ship the tablet to Motorola in a prepaid FedEx envelope, and the upgrade is expected to take six business days from the time customers ship the gadget to be complete.

In an FAQ explaining the process, Verizon said customers will not have to change their service plans when the LTE upgrade is complete. Verizon has said EV-DO data pricing for the Xoom falls under its previously established tablet pricing plans: 1 GB of data for per month; 3 GB for ; 5 GB for and 10 GB for . A Verizon spokeswoman, Brenda Raney, confirmed to FierceWireless that Xoom customers who buy the EV-DO version will not have to change their plans when they upgrade to LTE.

The nation’s largest carrier is selling the Xoom for 0 when paired with a two-year contract and 0 without a contract. At deadline, a Verizon spokeswoman could not clarify as to whether all future LTE tablets will have the same data pricing as the carrier’s current EV-DO tablets.

Last week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said the Xoom is worth 0 (sans contract)–despite the fact that the 32 GB version of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad with AT&T Mobility’s (NYSE:T) no-contract HSPA+ service retails for 9. “We felt that our ability to deliver 50 Mbps (via LTE) would justify the 9 price point,” Jha said. “It is 32 GB with 3G and a free upgrade to 4G. Being competitive with iPad is important. We feel that from the hardware and capabilities we deliver we are at least competitive and in a number of ways better [than the iPad].”

Verizon has said its LTE network delivers average real-world downlink performance of 5-12 Mbps and real-world uplink speeds of 2-5 Mbps.

For more:
- see this MobileBurn post
- see this Verizon FAQ page
- see this Verizon page

Related Articles:
Verizon offers 0 subsidy for Motorola Xoom
Motorola’s Jha: LTE justifies Xoom tablet’s 0 price tag
Motorola unveils Xoom, Android ‘Honeycomb’ tablet
Qualcomm unveils quad-core Snapdragon chipset for tablets
RIM teases LTE, HSPA+ versions of the PlayBook

FierceWireless

AT&T Mobility furthered its no-contract offerings by unveiling a pay-as-you-go mobile broadband plan and a trio of new laptop computers with embedded wireless modems. … Read More »

RCR Wireless News

Following up on this morning’s forthcoming data plan changes, AT&T has confirmed on its Facebook page that it would allow customers that have the current DataConnect unlimited data plan after June 7th to keep the plan when upgrading.  The…



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PhoneNews.com

Att announced today that it is ending its unlimited iphone data plans for a month, introducing new plans for new customers on June 7th, 2010:

DataPlus — Provides 200 megabytes (MB) of data. for example, enough to send/receive 1,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 150 emails with attachments, plus view 400 Web pages, plus post 50 photos on social media sites, plus watch 20 minutes of streaming video

DataPro — Provides 2 gigabytes (GB) of data. for example, enough to send/receive 10,000 emails (no attachments), plus send/receive 1,500 emails with attachments, plus view 4,000 Web pages, plus post 500 photos to social media sites, plus watch 200 minutes of streaming video

This is terrible news for new customers.
Thankfully existing contracts are not effected, and Att is “generously” offering to allow existing contracts to chose this new plan with no contract extensions.

New plans cost a month for the DataPro and for DataPlus.
Att has announced it is also ending the unlimited iPad data plans.

for unlimited data with an existing plan, or for limited?
Each 1 gigabyte over costs a user and Att will send a txt to a device nearing the monthly limit.

Att iPhone News, Hacks, App Reviews, How To and jailbreak