HP promises to expand webOS platform post-Palm deal

After announcing an agreement to acquire beleaguered device maker Palm for $1.2 billion, Hewlett-Packard praised Palm's webOS smartphone operating system and said it plans to continue nurturing and expanding the platform moving forward. Speaking on a conference call Wednesday, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group, said the company will leverage its distribution channels and financial strength to broaden the webOS platforms into new segments, with plans to introduce tablets and netbooks targeting both the consumer and enterprise markets.

HP vice president of investor relations Jim Burns adds the company will also invest in webOS research and development as well as sales and marketing efforts, and promised HP will continue to cultivate the webOS developer ecosystem. "We believe the developer community will very aggressively--as we invest and provide support--begin to develop that suite of applications for webOS to make it more compelling than it is today," he said.

Most pundits agree webOS needs a more substantial application inventory to make the platform more appealing to mobile subscribers--the Palm App Catalog virtual storefront only topped the 1,000 app benchmark this January, more than six months after it first launched. By comparison, Apple's App Store boasts more than 185,000 applications for the iPhone, while there are more than 50,000 apps for Google's Android OS.

For more on the HP/Palm deal:
- read this release

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