HP Not Interested in Smartphones Despite Buying Palm

Back in April, Palm was nearing the end of its rope and the only way it was able to at least prolong its lifespan was accepting to be bought off by HP. Not the most predictable of developments, but not entirely unexpected either, considering that the latter was looking for a good tablet and small form factor device software platform. Immediately after the announcement was made, however, the concern arose that the smartphone maker would still disappear immediately after the closing of the deal, with webOS as the only project set to continue being worked on.

This concern may actually have more justifications than one might think. In fact, one of HP's more recent public statements suggests that this may even happen sooner than anyone expects.

At Bank of America Merrill Lynch technology conference, HP CEO Mark Hurd stated that it makes no sense for the company to spend millions just to tackle the smartphone market because “that doesn't in any way make any sense.”

It seems surprising that the world's top PC maker would just acquire a smartphone maker and immediately give up on smartphones altogether, but this is what will supposedly happen after all. On the other hand, webOS will become a primary ingredient in the success of slates and other small, web-connected devices. Recently, it was even revealed that web-connected printers would eventually make use of this platform.

“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,” Hurd said. “We have tens of millions of HP small form factor web-connected devices… Now imagine that being a web-connected environment where now you can get a common look and feel and a common set of services laid against that environment. That is a very value proposition.”