HP's Whitman: Motorola May Make Android a 'Closed' OS

By PCMag Staff

February 16, 2012

Google's Android will end up as a "closed system" under Motorola, Hewlett-Packard chief executive Meg Whitman said on Wednesday.

"We've got our swagger back," Whitman told the company's channel partners in Las Vegas.

Whitman's stance toward WebOS, however, has raised some eyebrows, as she has said she believes WebOS will be a better OS after the company in mid-December. In August, of course, , a decision that Whitman later supported.

HP said in January that it will begin the process of open-sourcing WebOS , which will culminate with the expected September release of Open webOS 1.0.

In Las Vegas, Whitman said that the timeframe to turn the formerly proprietary WebOS into something a bit longer-lasting might take some more time.

"We decided to contribute WebOS to the open source community and this will take three to four years to play out," Whitman said, according to ChannelEMEA.com. "I think there is room for another operating system. iOS is great but it is a closed system. I think that Android may end up as a closed system because of [Google's] relationship with Motorola."

Google's acquisition of Motorola appears to be more of a ceertainty this week after both the , and then the , approved the $12.5 billion acquisition.

Whitman's comments have been consistent with her previous position, that Android will be far stronger under its new open source format than before - and even stronger than its rivals.

"We're going to build a new business together," she told CRN in early February. "We're going to build another operating system that has huge advantages, in my view, over iOS, which is a closed system, [and] Android, which is incredibly fragmented and may ultimately be more closed with [Google's] acquisition of Motorola Mobility."

Google representatives were unable to be reached for comment after business hours.