Now, it may have one: HP has filed a potentially telling application with patent and trademark officials for what it’s calling “PalmPad.” Enterprise Mobile Today takes a look.
What does HP have up its sleeve? Following its $1.2 billion purchase of Pre maker Palm, the computing giant may be edging forward on rolling out its own slate or tablet PC powered by Palm’s webOS.
That’s been HP’s rumored plan for some time, but with little evidence to back it up other than the company’s vague assertions that it plans to take webOS to other platforms beyond the Pre smartphone, the industry has been watching for hints.
One of the recurring rumors surrounding the reasons behind Hewlett-Packard’s $1.2 billion purchase of Palm was that it might make an iPad tablet competitor using the Palm webOS. That rumor just got a little more solid.
HP has filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the term “PalmPad.” The filing date was July 9 and the application is pending legal review. HP’s description doesn’t offer any indication of what it’s for; HP (NYSE: HPQ) just gives a string of product terms, like “portable computers, handheld and mobile computers, PDAs, electronic notepads, mobile digital electronic devices.”
