HP buys Palm, has big plans for the smartphone market

HP buys Palm! While we knew that Palm was up for sale (it really had no other choice to save itself), we had no idea who will take on the opportunity. This may be one of the turning points in the smartphone market as HP can bring a lot to the table at this point.

Palm, (smartphone producers that also developped the webOS) was bought for around $1.2 billion. That’s around $5.70 for each share, but it’s not the sum that makes this aqusiton very interesting, it’s what might come out of this combination.

First of all, HP is as global as they get, and almost as fortunate as they get. Add the true multitasking features that they can implement in future mobile devices. And speaking of mobile devices, HP is already present in the smartphone market (although not of notable importance) and the PDA market.

In a press release following this acquisition, HP announced that they want to be a major player on this “large, profitable and rapidly growing” smartphone market, so I guess these guys really mean business.

I might be wrong, but I expect some great HP smartphones to pop out of this combination, personally I think it’s a shame Palm had to go down though (the Palm Pixi Plus and Palm Pre Plus were not that awful phones).