HP wants Palm OS for Web-connected printers, Hurd says

18.05.2010
Hewlett-Packard has already said it will use Palm's webOS in smartphones and slate computers, but on Tuesday it revealed it has another category of products in mind: printers.

HP is buying Palm because it wants the company's operating system to use in Web-connected printers, Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd said during HP's quarterly earnings call. The printers let people print maps, theater tickets and other content straight from the Internet, without needing to start a PC.

"You've now got a whole series of Web-connected printers that, as they connect to the Web, need an OS. We prefer that OS to be our [intellectual property], where we can control the customer experience," Hurd said when asked about HP's motives for the US$1.2 billion deal to buy Palm.

"You can certainly make the same case for smaller form-factor products in the mobile world, like a slate," he added.

HP does want to grow Palm's smartphone business, Hurd said, but that's not its only motivation for buying the company, and possibly not even the biggest.

"It isn't precisely a smartphone play as I've seen some people write," Hurd said. The deal is "strategically broader" for HP. "It really has more to do with the IP," he said, meaning the intellectual property, or Palm's webOS.