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From the Press Release Bin: Another WebOS

The WebOS space has one more member: Synthasite, which joins Teqlo (my first post!), YouOS, Xcerion, Facebook, and others I’m sure. The “WebOS space” is loosely defined, but all members share the common goal of trying to create the development platform on which mashups and applications are built and distributed - a lucrative market — if it really exists.

I’ve argued elsewhere that trying to create development environments like this has relatively little marginal benefit: anyone with the skill and motivation to create a web application will do so in the tool of their choice. Windows thrived as a platform because it provided a set of API’s and a hardware abstraction layer that made developing apps easier; the web generally doesn’t suffer the same level of complexity until you’re into the realm enterprise-strength applications - which these WebOS players aren’t targeting anyway.

So - where they fit into the web ecosystem I have no idea. I admire all players for the technical challenge that they’ve taken on, but I’m not holding my breath for any to become a breakaway success - with the exception of Facebook who - interestingly enough - created the market for their platform before creating the platform itself.

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