James Delahunty
6 Oct 2010 15:37
Hewlett-Packard Senior Vice President Eric Cador has told an industry conference that the company will begin shipping smartphones loaded with the webOS software it acquired from its $1.2 billion Palm buyout earlier this year. "You will see us coming early next year with new phones," he said.
HP bought Palm in order to fast-track its venture into the smartphones market, and had recognized the importance of getting the rights to the popular software immediately. "More importantly we acquired webOS," Cador told the conference in Barcelona.
Going by revenue, Hewlett-Packard is the world's largest technology company, but it would risk falling behind if it didn't target the highly profitable smartphone market. Palm's intellectual property has provided it with its own weaponry to fight against rivals like Apple, which dominates the market.
Dell, Lenovo and Acer are also pushing into feature-packed smartphones as the sector continues to grow rapidly.