Promising bigger and better things for the future, Palm’s email to customers about the HP purchase (or is it HP’s email to customers about the purchase of Palm? We can’t tell anymore…) indicated that there is indeed a new generation of Palm webOS products brewing (emphasis ours):

Great news. Palm is now part of the HP family. And that means bigger and better things for customers like you. With the power of HP behind us, the excitement created by the first Palm® webOS™ phones will grow even stronger as we introduce a new generation of devices. At the same time, you’ll still receive the same outstanding support that you’ve come to expect from Palm.

Of course, that’s little surprise, and the folks at Palm, Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, is being their characteristic tight-lipped selves. New smartphones? A tablet or two? Sure, maybe.

But what else does HP make that could benefit from a dose of webOS goodness? A lot, it would seem. A quick perusal of HP’s product catalog reveals a veritable cornucopia of devices ripe for some newness. Apart from the printers that HP keeps crowing about, and the tablets they keep hinting at, several other devices fit the bill. How about a webOS-powered netbook? Or a TouchSmart desktop PC running super-sized webOS? What of the webOS digital photo frame that passively brings seamless multi-tasking to your desk? Or maybe we could see the resurrection of the PDA, this time running the awesomeness that is webOS? Okay, maybe that last one’s a bit far-fetched.

The possibilities for the future of webOS on HP devices are pretty much wide open. Only time will tell where webOS is going to end up, but we wouldn’t be surprised if more than a few HP devices outside of the Palm division are running webOS this time next year.

Source: Palm

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We already noted HP CTO Phil McKinney’s welcome to the webOS community, but as promised McKinney has updated the post with a link to the above discussion with two guys that Palm fans know well, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. 

The three chat about McKinney’s place in HP, HP’s interest in Palm, and more. Oh, the chuckles about smartphones being a "sideshow:" "Our interest is in the phone business, no if, ands, buts about it."

McKinney also mentions slates and "other form factors," which could be taken as yet another hint at webOS netbooks. We also like the talk about HP’s scale and how they intend to put that behind webOS – in particular their strength outside the US. On slates: "We think webOS on a slate could be an amazing kind of experience."

Get this: HP has an event called TechCon and McKinney offered free phones to HP engineers who build webOS apps (many of which our readers have already seen begin to pop up in the Beta feeds). 

Last but not least, here’s the brief synopsis of what is going to happen to Palm as a business unit: "Palm will become the seat of innovation for global mobile platforms. Our intent is to leave Palm as is. [...] Don’t mangle up Palm kind of philsophy." Palm will be an "autonomous unit" within HP but able to take advantage of the resources at HP. 

Source: Vimeo and HP

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HP’s Phil McKinney has written a welcome letter to the Palms employees who are now HP employees:

Today, we’re excited to welcome the Palm team and its community of customers, developers and enthusiasts into the HP family. [...]

For me, what’s equally exciting is the Palm team itself. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to personally meet a number of Palm employees, and I’ve been impressed with their passion for innovation, vision for the future and commitment to growing with HP.

I’ve also heard great stories about the Palm community’s enthusiasm. And I recently met with Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer from the Palm Developer Relations Team to discuss the opportunities that lie ahead for WebOS developers.

McKinney says howdy, everybody – say howdy back, he’s up on Twitter here: @philmckinney. While you’re adding new places to follow, here are some more:

• @HP_PC
• @HPLabs
• @hpnews
• HP Home on Facebook

Tell ‘em PreCentral sent ya!

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HP has published its official press release announcing the completion of the Palm acquisition, and its brief text includes quite a few carrots for the hungry webOS faithful. One is this quote from Todd Bradley, the EVP of HP’s Personal Systems Group (to whom Jon Rubinstein and his Palm global business unit will report):

With webOS, HP will deliver its customers a unique and compelling experience across smartphones and other mobility products. This allows us the opportunity to fully engage in growing our smartphone family offering and the footprint of webOS.

For those wishing for official confirmation that Palm will remain a smartphone provider, there it is.

Even more exciting is what the release says about how broadly that "footprint" will stretch:

Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.

Forget about the Foleo that was for sale on eBay yesterday: HP has just definitively told the world that slate PCs (aka tablets) and netbooks running webOS are in the works.

Full release after the break!

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Jon Zilber, Palm’s online communications director (and the person behind the @Palm Twitter account), has posted a new blog providing the Palm team’s perspective on the just-completed acquisition.

Zilber writes:

It’s our first day together, but it’s already abundantly clear to everyone who’s been involved in bringing the two companies together that great things are in store. The combination of Palm’s trailblazing webOS and HP’s strength as the leading provider of everything from PCs, laptops, and printers to home electronics and enterprise systems promises an amazing roadmap of new tools for your mobile and web-connected future.

Click here to read the complete blog, and be sure to take advantage of all the ways Zilber mentions to follow and contribute your ideas to the newly combined companies.

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With the HP acquisition of Palm closing today, the first public sign of the new combination arrived this morning with the launch of HP’s Wireless Central store and new sections of its Small and Midsized Business pages.

Last thing’s first – at the bottom of HP’s SMB pages where you can now find Palm devices, we find this valuable piece of information from the business site is in its fine print:

Palm, Pixi, Pre and webOS are trademarks of Palm, Inc., a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard Company.

That is solid confirmation that, at least in the near term, the Palm brand, and Palm itself, will remain intact within the HP organization.

Read on to see how Palm has already popped up on HP’s site.

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Here it comes, Palm has just filed Form 25-NSE with the SEC,

NOTIFICATION OF REMOVAL FROM LISTING AND/OR REGISTRATION UNDER SECTION 12(b) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

That’s them removing their stock from the NASDAQ stock market, folks. NASDAQ certified and signed the form, so everybody’s in agreement here.

If last night’s welcome to the new era didn’t drive home the fact that Palm is now part of HP, the fact that very soon you won’t be able to buy their stock independently should, eh?

Let’s get it on, HP!

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Tomorrow, Palm will cease to be an independent company and become a division of HP. Many have said that this is a failure of their new strategy surrounding webOS and their attempt to signal a rebirth of a company. I tend to disagree, to my eyes for the past few years Palm was essentially a startup company and achieved one of the two possible good outcomes for any startup: getting acquired by a larger company who sees tremendous value in your product and your people.

So Palm is dead, but Palm will live on within HP and I hope that the idea behind Palm will live on both inside HP. (Warning: bombast ahead.)

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