Hewlett-Packard abandoned a plan to launch a smartphone and tablet based on Google's Android platform, according to former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein.
The computer maker, which snatched up Palm for $1.2 billion in April, will instead focus on delivering a tablet running on Palm's webOS platform early next year and a Windows-based tablet before that. According to Rubinstein, HP is eschewing Android in favor of putting webOS into gadgets like phones, tablets and printers.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Rubinstein expressed frustration that HP has not released more webOS devices since the Palm deal closed in July. However, he said he is confident in HP's scale and in the new, forthcoming version of Palm's platform, webOS 2.0. HP plans to release new smartphones with webOS, but has not said when it will do so.
Interestingly, Rubinstein, along with Steven McArthur, HP's senior vice president of consumer applications, hinted that HP will deliver a cloud-based streaming music service to smartphones. Google said in May it plans to add a streaming music service to Android, though it did not specify when it will do so.
For more:
- see this FT article
- see this AllThingsD blog post
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