Hewlett-Packard announced late last month that it acquired struggling smartphone maker Palm for a cool $1.2 billion, with analysts curious to hear what HP planned to do with the company.
It seemed highly unlikely that HP wanted to keep the company's mobile phone business alive -- and the only other asset Palm had worth value was its WebOS software.
As expected, HP has shown interest for the software side of Palm's business, and wants to use it for newer Web-connected printers.
"You've now got a whole series of Web-connected printers that, as they connect to the Web, need an OS," HP CEO Mark Hurd recently said. "We prefer that OS to be our [intellectual property], where we can control the customer experience."
The company already has a wide variety of printers available to consumers, and its Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web printer is the company's most appealing Web-connected product. The printer has a 4.3-inch touchscreen providing the ability to easily format and print content from select partners.
HP isn't ready to completely throw in the towel on Palm's smartphone business, Hurd noted during the conference call, but using Palm's intellectual property is a wise long-term plan. Microsoft and HP remain strong corporate partners, so HP doesn't seem interested in interfering with Microsoft's mobile aspirations.
If HP takes its time and develops smartphone and tablets slowly -- and I'm still unsure if the company has enough patience -- it can still use Palm's smartphone technology for newer portable products. I'm interested to see if we'll see HP test the smartphone market further using WebOS technology, or if it will capitalize on the WebOS app store at some point.
