Whether it was conceived in grand strategic plans or purely accidental, Palm's choice to build a phone upon Linux without hardware DRM is, in my opinion, the magic bullet to the Smartphone wars.
They havent pulled the trigger yet, however, when the GSM version of WebOS shows up on the scene, this may be the dawn of a new era of smartphones. Given the momentum and activity of the "homebrew" community behind this already (and its only limited to Sprint customers in the US) I believe once this hits GSM, the homebrew community will explode.
It isnt necessarily the Phone hardware, the WebOS UI, or the fact that it runs Linux. Its the combination of those three elements coupled with the lack of the draconion DRM that is making this a slow hit.
Apple's on-stage joke this week about the 18 apps for the Palm may have been funny at the time, however, running a single slimed down OpenOffice app is worth thousands of "Fad Apps"
The destiny is not in the stars however as Palm has not officially come out with a policy regarding the homebrew efforts. I would only hope they will take their time and make a wise decision.
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