HP Already Back in the Smartphone Game

Either the Internet was especially efficient in delivering the masses’ message loaded with conflicting feelings on yesterday's announcement, or HP not interested in smartphones was a complete and unfortunate misunderstanding. These appear to be the only plausible reasons for the latest official statement that the world's greatest PC supplier made.

After news that webOS would be headed to tablets and, oddly enough, web-connected printers (eventually), HP caught the world by surprise when it said, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch technology conference, that it wasn't interested in the smartphone business, despite buying Palm. The reason given was that spending millions on just this venture makes no sense.

“We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP. The WebOS is one of the two ground-up pieces of software that is built as a web operating environment,” said HP CEO Mark Hurd.

This immediately caused the media to raise questions as to Palm's ultimate fate. The company arose as a smartphone maker and the webOS platform is, in itself, a smartphone OS. Buying such a company only to have it renounce its very nature seemed quite radical, even if webOS was to be adapted for other types of electronics.

Now, HP has come forth to allay these fears, declaring that Palm will keep making smartphones while the webOS platform is promoted on a variety of other market segments.

"When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones," HP reportedly stated. "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."