We need a "web first" mobile OS?
Tags: webos, frontend, html
Published: 2022-11-29 20:54:39

---
title: We need a "web first" mobile OS?
published: true
description: Throwback to the smartphone wars of the 2010s, HTML5 vs apps and WebOS!
tags: webos, frontend, html5 
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# published_at: 2022-11-29 20:26 +0000
---

"We need a web first mobile os" someone recently said. I think it was [Jane M Wong](https://twitter.com/wongmjane) replying a few days ago to Elon Musk's idea of building his own mobile OS, but I can't verify that since Jane's account is disabled at the moment. However, this piece is not about new Bird site or the Birdman. I was happy seeing this idea floating around again! It took me on a trip down memory lane. 
- In 2009 I downloaded the Palm Mojo SDK.
- In 2010 when I bought the original iPad I decided I was going to make HTML5 games. I joined the Palm WebOS Early Access Program and was given a development unit, the GSM Pre!


## Palm Pre in the mobile landscape

The web as a platform was regarded a competitor of apps. 
This was around the same time Steve Jobs wrote "Thoughts on Flash" which forced Adobe not just to give up their hopes of building a Flash plugin for IOS, but even halting the support of all existing mobile platforms in 2011.

If you wanted to make an app for mobile platforms, you had at least 3 to consider: Android, IOS and Windows Phone. But there were many more out there. Now we have React Native, but this idea came from right around this time with Phonegap: What if you could write one HTML5 app for all devices?
Speaking from the perspective of being a frontend developer, the Pre was an amazing phone. You could build apps using just HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The API wasn't a third party wrapper around the native API:s as with Phonegap. It was native web.


## New OS inventions

The idea of native HTML5 apps was certainly a refreshing addition to the landscape of increasingly growing platforms; Objective-C for IOS, Java for Android, Silverlight for Windows Phone, but in 2010 alone several other platforms were announced like MeeGo (merging Nokia's Maemo and Moblin from Intel and Linux Foundation), Samsung's BadaOS, Microsoft's Kin OS... Note that some of these companies were betting on multiple horses at once: Microsoft had Kin OS and killed its acquired DangerOS just before announcing Windows Phone. Nokia had Maemo, MeeGo and Symbian. 

## UI inventions

As a smartphone the Pre worked surprisingly good. It had a better interface for navigating between apps than any other mobile OS: Cards.
Swipe to the sides to navigate between apps, swipe up to kill them. Invented by their then lead designer Matias Duarte.
Of course, now we all use the cards metaphor and Matias went on to become the director of Android User Experience. Now Google's VP of design.
It's no understatement that the WebOS UI inventions have had a huge influence on the direction of the leading mobile operating systems of today.


## From phones to printers to TV:s

WebOS was running on Palm's Pixi and Pre phones when they sold to HP in April 2010. HP had it powering their phones, tablets and even planned it for their printers. However, just over a year later in August 2011 HP was interested in selling its Personal Systems Group with all consumer PC products including WebOS, and halted device development.
In 2013 LG bought WebOS which is now still alive and kicking in their TV:s. 

## The "web first" OS of today 

WebOS also has a personal meaning to me: Between 2008-2010 I was working with HTML-based interfaces for TV:s. Back then we didn't have smart TV:s, instead we had to run set top boxes. As I write this text from my sofa I am stoked that the amazing WebOS is alive and running HTML5 apps on my TV standing a few meters in front of me. 
At least in the landscape of TV:s there's a "web first" OS!