Well, it was bound to happen eventually, and now we know exactly the day when HP will flip the switch on the webOS cloud services servers: 15 January 2015. Just barely six years after the Palm Pre was introduced at CES 2009, HP plans to shut off their last remaining expenses related to their disastrously-managed webOS experiment. The date also falls just short of two years after HP sold off their webOS assets to LG. It's a sad, but not unexpected day. And when the 15th of January does come, all webOS cloud services will go offline.
What all does that entail? Here's what you won't be able to do on a webOS device come January 15th:
- Backups
- Restore
- New device set-up
- Password recovery
- App Catalog app downloads
- App Catalog app updates
- App Catalog app restores
- webOS system updates (you know, if you've for whatever reason not updated in the past three years...)
It's unsurprising to have this come to pass, and we're at least thankful that HP is being forthright and transparent about it. As they say in the FAQ:
Shutting down webOS cloud services is part of an orderly end of life program. HP announced the end of webOS devices (phones and tablets) over 3 years ago but the services were kept running to allow customers to continue to have a richer user experience. The user count has dwindled to the point where it is no longer viable to keep the services running.
It's a sad day, and it'll be a sad day yet when the 15th of January comes and those servers go dark.
But in the meantime, the webOS Nation App Gallery is still up and running. Yeah, we know, we're still here. Any developers interested in moving their apps over to the App Gallery are welcome to do so and can request access to submit apps here (select "Submit Homebrew App" as the category). We know it's not the same as the App Catalog and we don't have a system in place for payments, but what have you got to lose at this point?
For those of you that are wondering how you'll manage in a post-App Catalog world, check out our guide for installing Preware on your webOS device.
Source: HP webOS Developer Center
