Andre Yoskowitz
18 Jun 2010 23:30
PreCentral has revealed this week that HP, which recently acquired the struggling smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion, is planning on releasing new Palm smartphone devices next year, as well as an updated WebOS mobile operating system.
Palm had put itself up for sale in March after it became clear that the company's phones were not selling and it only had enough cash to last the next 12 months. In late April, HP swooped in and purchased the company Palm for $1.2 billion, after at least four other companies gave serious bids.
At the time, HP's CEO said the purchase was made with the intent of integrating WebOS into a plethora of other devices, like tablets and printers, and that HP was "not getting into the smartphone business."
That seems to have changed, as a Palm representative disclosed to PC that: "I'm not allowed to talk about future roadmaps, especially because we're in the process of being acquired by HP, so I can't say. But yes we have a road map. We are working on future devices. And [a] new version of the OS. So I think, you're going to find the next year very exciting."
WebOS is arguably the best smartphone operating system available, but consumers have not adopted the Palm hardware, which has been slashed to free from Verizon and Sprint due to lack of demand.