HP goes all in on Palm's webOS, unveils trio of new devices

It’s been more than nine months since Hewlett-Packard Co. acquired Palm and the company is just now taking the wraps off its plans for the technology and talented team that it bought for $1.2 billion.
At a drawn-out press event yesterday, HP unveiled three new devices that run on the webOS platfrom: a tablet called HP TouchPad, the Pre 3 and Veer.
Right off the bat, HP noticeably left the Palm name and brand out of all marketing materials and branding. It appears the Pre 2 will be the last device to carry the Palm brand.
In the case of the Pre 3, HP announced details about a third-generation device before the second version of the device even hits store shelves — a rarity in the consumer electronics space.
HP’s acquisition of Palm appears to be all about the webOS platform and the talented team that worked at Palm. HP also announced that it plans to bring webOS to PCs and other connected devices beyond tablets and smart phones. It’s unclear just how much HP might try to shun Microsoft Corp.’s Windows and aim to define a greater role for webOS in the personal computing space, but it is a challenge directed squarely at Microsoft nonetheless.
“Today we’re embarking on a new era of webOS with the goal of linking a wide family of HP products through the best mobile experience available,” Jon Rubinstein, SVP and GM of the Palm Global Business Unit at HP, said in a prepared statement. “The flexibility of the webOS platform makes it ideal for creating a range of innovative devices that work together to keep you better connected to your world.”
HP TouchPad features a 9.7-inch touch screen, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon dual-core 1.2 GHz processor. The device, which won’t be available until summer, comes with the option of 16 GB or 32 GB of storage and pricing was not announced.
HP Veer claims to be the smallest webOS smart phone to date, coming in at the size of a credit card and sporting a 2.57-inch touch screen with a full slide-out keyboard. The device also has a 5-megapixel camera, 8 GB of internal storage and an 800 MHz processor.
Finally, the Pre 3 features a 3.58-inch touch screen, a Snapdragon 1.4 GHz processor and a full slide-out keyboard. The third version of the company’s premier smart phone also comes with the option of 8 GB or 16 GB of storage and a 5-megapixel camera.
The HP Veer will be available this spring on a yet-to-be-named GSM service provider and the Pre 3 will be available this summer. HP declined to name pricing for any of the new devices.