HP reveals tablet plans

The new owner of Palm has plans to break into the tablet market in the near future with a device that may well be called the ‘PalmPad’.

There’s a degree of speculation around this plan at the moment, given that HP has just this month filed a trademark application for the term ‘PalmPad’ in the US. But it is known that the tablet form factor is one device type the company is interested in.

The US manufacturer picked up the struggling handset vendor for $1.2bn in cash in April, with the intention of heavily investing in the webOS platform. At the time, HP said that Palm will be responsible for webOS-based software and hardware products, “from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.”

Former Apple heavyweight Jon Rubinstein joined Palm as executive chairman in 2007, and assumed the role of CEO in June 2009. He was instrumental in turning Apple’s fortunes around in the late 90s, and was also the visionary behind the original iPod. Analyst house Informa Telecoms & Media believes that it is important for HP to retain Rubinstein and keep him at the forefront of the development of webOS.