Is HP's play for Palm about tablets?

Tablet computers have long sat in a nebulous part of the enterprise. But the robust sales numbers for the iPad, reported by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) this week, and the many man-on-the-street interviews I've seen, make me believe the device is turning into a key tool for business travelers. Apple announced that it sold 1 million iPads as of April 30--28 days after the first iPad models went on sale.

In the coming months, we're going to see a host of new tablet computing devices flood the market. In fact, HP's (NYSE: HPQ) 1.2 billion play for Palm is shaping up to be more about tablets than smartphones. The smartphone business, which is quickly becoming super saturated with the likes notebook makers such as Dell, Lenovo and Acer, is one both HP and Palm are separately struggling in. But as Technology Business Research points out, the tablet computing space hasn't been well defined by any single manufacturer or operating system. Could Palm's WebOS combined with HP's extensive PC manufacturing expertise give it the leading position?

The scuttlebutt this week has to do with whether HP will drop tablet plans to incorporate Windows 7 and go with the WebOS. IMS Research principal analyst Anna Hunt expects HP to employ WebOS in favor of Windows 7 OS, citing the high cost and potential strain on the processor.

Moreover, Palm's webOS, despite gaining little traction in the smartphone market, is liked by developers as it offers many similarities to Linux. The platform just didn't have the volume to woo developers en mass. "If HP can create a compelling tablet offering that people are willing to buy, the barriers to entry for developers might be fairly minimal," wrote IMS Research analyst Chris Schreck. Moreover, HP has a commanding presence in the enterprise market, which should be attractive to developers.

Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst with J Gold Associates, points out that since tablets are mainly front ends to the Internet, there is a big play for HP to deploy many cloud-based services from which it can generate revenue. I can only imagine the cloud-based services HP can dream up for the enterprise. - Lynnette