Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd gave some more details pertaining to its plans for Palm's webOS once the $1.2 billion acquisition is complete.

During a conference call with analysts announcing the company's second-quarter earnings, Hurd said webOS will go well beyond smartphones and tablet PCs and into connected devices such as web printers complete with an app store. The company's aim is to also grow Palm's smartphone business.

"[The proposed deal] isn't precisely a smartphone play, as I've seen some people write," Hurd said. "It is, for us, strategically broader."

He said HP's wide range of connected devices would benefit from having a common operating system. "We expect to leverage WebOS into a variety of form factors, including 'slates' and web-connected printers," Hurd said.

HP has scrapped its plans to debut a tablet PC based on Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows 7 OS instead favoring a webOS tablet that could hit the market in the third quarter, according to published reports.

For more:
- see this eWeek article

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