During the analyst call that followed HP’s latest financial results announcement (revenues of US$30.8 billion), CEO Mark Hurd shed some new light on its intentions for Palm and its webOS (assuming that the acquisition is approved).
Hurd confirmed HP’s plans for webOS-powered slate (including the HP Hurricane?) and netbook devices. This lines up with earlier rumours and is not a huge surprise. But HP is also looking at using the mobile operating system in printers! Hurd said: “With a whole series of Web-connected printers, as they connect to the Web, they need an OS.”
HP already has a line of Internet printers that can download apps. Rather than continuing to use this proprietary technology, HP could modify webOS to allow printers to download apps from the Palm App Catalog. Third party developers could also offer their own applications, further expanding the webOS application ecosystem.
It looks like HP was not kidding when they said that they had big plans for their Palm acquisition…