Yesterday, HP said they didn’t acquire Palm to get into the smartphone business, and they’ve issued a clarification, for those who read that as “we aren’t going to make smartphones”.
When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones. We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devices, and we expect to expand webOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market, all while leveraging our financial strength, scale, and global reach to grow in smartphones.
While that’s certainly consistent with their earlier statement, and does solidify Palm’s continued participation in the mobile market, but it still sounds like phones are going to stay as a very small part of their overall strategy. HP was pretty vocal about their interest in getting webOS onto slates and printers after buying Palm for $1.2 billion. A webOS tablet seems most likely right now, given how quickly that market is becoming populated, with printers then phones next on the list.
The future’s looking interesting, if unexpected, for Palm and their webOS. Fans of their work will should get comfortable with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, because it’ll likely be the only new webOS phones for the forseeable future while HP is busy spreading the platform to new form factors and devices.
[via Engadget]