HP Smartphone On The Way?

HP's CEO Meg Whitman is facing reality.

She knows computing, as we've known it in the past is on the wane. And, the future – at least for the next few years – the smartphone will be the most important device in the marketplace.

So, it's no surprise that Ms. Whitman told Fox Business News that HP is going to have to develop a smartphone of their own.

She admitted that “in many countries smartphones are people's first computing device” and since she runs a big computing company HP will have to take advantage of that form factor.

For those with short memories, HP has a long history with smartphones. They are the company that bought Palm, killed that line of smartphones (and tablets) allowing the underlying webOS operating system to become open source.

And before that HP used to make some of the best early Microsoft Windows Mobile devices on the planet.

Whitman said that no timetable has been set and gave no hints at what operating system (webOS, Android, Windows Phone) a new HP smartphone might utilize.