Android was designed for mobile phones but has been seen by some others besides HP as a potential OS for netbooks. Some enthusiasts have been testing Android on netbooks such as Asustek's Eee PC, and chip makers such as Qualcomm and Freescale hope to bring Android to netbooks running on their Arm-based chips.

HP may have in mind a netbook optimized for use with Web-based services such as the Google Docs hosted applications suite and Google's online storage service, said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

The fact that notebooks are designed to provide quick access to online services, often over wireless networks, makes them in some ways like oversized smartphones.

There are also no license fees for Android, which could allow hardware makers to offer lower-priced computers than those running Windows. However, consumers have been willing to pay extra in the past for netbooks running Windows, analysts noted.

HP already offers some PCs with a choice of Linux or Windows, and introducing another OS choice would come with some risk, said David Daoud, a research manager at IDC. Some end-users don't like Linux because they are unfamiliar with it, he said.