HP executives said webOS software from freshly-acquired Palm would complement Windows in machines designed to synch with the computer giant's smart phones, printers and a new TouchPad tablet computer built on the platform.
“It indicates, at least somewhat, a HP rejection of Microsoft,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg.
“The fact that they said webOS is coming to PCs (personal computers) is indicative that there is something they are not getting from Microsoft right now.”
HP bought Palm last year in a US$1.2-billion deal evidently driven by a desire to get its hands on Palm's webOS software platform.
Palm began working on webOS five years ago and a Palm Pre smart phone running on the software was a hit at the major Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early last year.
Since webOS is optimized for touch screen controls as well as keyboards, it is likely that computers built with the software will take advantage of that increasingly popular user interface.
“The reason they would do this is presumably the Touch Smart line,” Gartenberg said, referring to HP computers with touch screen controls.
Building webOS into personal computers is part of a strategy to let HP gadgets easily swap or synchronize data, sometimes as easily as touching one device to another with a feature called “Touch To Share.”
“Clearly, HP has something that is going to set them apart and that is scale,” said NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker.
“Touch To Share is pretty cool, but it is something you can't do unless you are the hardware and the software guy.”
HP boasts a billion customers in 174 countries and said it ships two personal computers and two printers each second.
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