As HP’s ‘Think Beyond’ event (which saw the announcement of the HP TouchPad tablet and the Pre 3 and Veer smartphones) neared its end today, Todd Bradley, Executive Vice President of the PGS group, revealed that HP will bring webOS to printers (something it already hinted at in the past) and to desktop and notebook PCs. With HP selling two PCs and two printers every second, this could represent a sizeable webOS user base in little time (not that every PC and printer will suddenly run webOS but even a small fraction could mean some fairly large numbers rather quickly).
Bradley revealed little about HP’s plans in this area but it conceivable that webOS could be offered as a a dual-boot option along with Windows 7 or perhaps even as a custom UI over Windows 7 (for its TouchSmart PCs for example). The biggest loser here would be Microsoft. It has already released a statement downplaying the announcement: “HP is a valued Microsoft partner, and we continue to work closely with them on many new products that bring great experiences to our mutual customers.”
While he gave no timelines, Bradley did indicate that HP would have more webOS announcements this year and that new webOS form factors would be unveiled later (perhaps as early as March?).
If HP can execute on this strategy, webOS could have a very bright future.