WebOS Tablet From HP In Q3WebOS Tablet From HP In Q3

HP just announced its intention to buy Palm on April 28. I am sure both companies are buried in financial due diligence and regulatory approval. That isn't putting the brakes on the rumor mill at all though. Right now the word is a WebOS based tablet is in the works and will be released sometime in the third quarter of this year.When HP purchased Palm the assumption was it was for the mobile phone business, and to some extent, that is obviously true, but it isn't the only reason. WebOS is a powerful operating system, and like Android and the iPhone OS, it should be able to scale up to run larger more powerful hardware like a tablet.

HP has been touting a device it calls the Slate and it runs Windows 7. The Examiner is reporting that device was less than a stellar performer though. As fast as Windows 7 is, it still needs a decent set of hardware specs to run acceptably. If you put all of that hardware in a tablet the size of an iPad, it will either be too slow, too expensive, or, well, not the size of an iPad.

Enter WebOS and the HP Hurricane. This could be an iPad sized device. The OS is designed to run on a low power processor with limited device resources. This gives a PC maker, HP, something it has always wanted - an operating system of its own that could reduce the leverage Microsoft has over it. If the Hurricane gets a lot of marketing backing, this could do more to re-energize the WebOS phone platform than anything else.