HP will use its acquisition of Palm to extend the webOS operating system into devices like printers, according to comments made by Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
“When we think of printers, you’ve now got a whole series of Web-connected printers that as they connect to the Web, need an OS,” he said. “We prefer to have that OS in our case to be our [intellectual property] where we can control the customer experience as we always have in the printing business, and that’s a big deal to us.”
Hurd also said the company “expect[s] to be a participant” in the market for tablet devices and said the company would “play across that gamut of capabilities the customers want,” from smartphones to laptops.
Overall, HP made $2.2 billion in its fiscal second quarter, an increase from the same period last year when it made $1.7 billion. Sales also rose, hitting $30.8 billion from $27.4 billion last year.
The company expects to post sales of $123.7 billion to $124.9 billion for the full year 2010.