In a this week, Apotheker revealed HP's ambitious plans for WebOS, which the company acquired when it for $1.2 billion last year. As expected, HP has moved quickly to utilize WebOS, a well-reviewed mobile operating system that was partnered with so-so hardware during its Palm days. HP last month launched two new WebOS phones, the , and will soon ship its first WebOS-based .

But Apotheker's admission reveals a far more ambitious strategy for WebOS, one that copies a page from Apple's playbook by bringing hardware and software development in-house. HP's upcoming desktops and laptops will still run Microsoft Windows, of course, but the inclusion of WebOS will allow HP to capitalize on a growing trend: The fact that we're buying different gadgets to do different things. The era of the one-size-fits-all computing device is over.

"HP clearly sees a trend we've been talking about for some time now. The idea of multiple devices per person," says IDC computer analyst Tom Mainelli.

"For years the industry talked about hardware convergence but, in reality, devices continue to diverge. People have come to realize that they don't want one single device because while that device might do many things, it likely won't do any of them particularly well," writes Mainelli in an e-mail interview with PCWorld.