HP smartphones will be webOS only as webOS 2.0 confirmed

But could all just be a sub-brand of HP

24 July 2010 7:58 GMT / By Stuart Miles

HP has shunned Google and Microsoft, announcing that it will be only using it's newly bought webOS operating system in smartphones moving forward.

HP Executive Vice President Todd Bradley confirmed the move in an interview with CNBC that will see HP opt for the webOS OS rather than Windows Phone 7 or Android in the future.

The news comes as former CEO of Palm, but still with the company, Jon Rubinstein confirmed in an speech at Fortune Magazine’s Brainstorm tech conference, reports everythingpre.com that the division was working on releasing the next version of webOS; webOS 2.0 "later this year".

Rubinstein also confirmed that the division has "a great roadmap in place" hinting as more hardware in the near future, although no dates or confirmation of new hardware was announced.

However don't expect it to get top billing with the Palm name branded everywhere if comments made to German newspaper, FAZ.net are anything to go by. According to Precentral.net HP's CEO Mark Hurd is reported in saying that "while the Palm brand won't die, it could "move into the background" like the "HP Pavillion for personal computers" - a 'sub-brand,' if you will.

Looks like interesting times are ahead for both companies.

Full tags

Phones, Mobile phones, HP, Palm, Android, Windows Phone 7, Microsoft, Google, webOS