This HAS to be the news of the week!

HP, they of corporate PC and printer fame, has announced their purchase of ailing smartphone player, Palm, for the princely sum of $1.2 billion.

So, what’s going on? HP is not (until now) a major player in the mobile market, despite their investment in the iPaq range of Windows CE and Mobile handhelds. What do they get by buying Palm?

A huge prize. No doubt. Widely touted as the next best thing in mobile operating systems, it seems that the only reason this is not already the mobile OS of choice, is the sad ‘n sorry hardware it ships on. The Treo series were cool at one stage, but haven’t been for a long time. Even the more-recently launched Pre and Pixie offerings fell flat, and were unable to revive Palm’s flagging fortunes. This acquisition will ensure that the splendid WebOS doesn’t go down with the hardware ship.

Interviewed by leading Silicon Valley tech blog, TechCrunch, shortly after the announcement, Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior Veep of Strategy and Corporate Development, said: “WebOS is the best-in-class mobile operating system. Our intent is to double down on WebOS.”
Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein, speaking to another leading tech blog, Engadget , succinctly responded, “that was the whole point.”

Two other “overheards” from the HP press conference, give an appetising taster of what HP have planned for WebOS: “scale it across multiple connected devices” and, in reference to pre-purchase testing “to make sure it scales”. Scale it? To what? Only one thing. A tablet computer to compete with the Apple iPad.

Watch this space.
I believe we’ll soon see a phone/tablet combo that learns how-to from, and credibly competes with, Apple’s iPhone/iPad.
With an HP logo.