HP might get into Windows 8 tablet business

HP has been through a lot of turbulent times recently. A CEO change, failure of a high-profile product line and finally a decision to lay-off the whole consumer PC section – all these must have been quite testing situations for the World’s biggest PC maker. Now that it finally tends to settle down, sense returns, and we hear that the PC division stays. HP lovers will have to mainly thank the current CEO, Meg Whitman, for she seems to be a sensible choice.

Windows 8 plans

In a telephonic interview, Whitman revealed some plans to analysts. Among them were plans for tablets and WebOS. She says that the company plans to get into Windows 8 tablet business. In fact windows 8 will features in both PCs as well as tablets.

The Windows 8 tablet might launch sometimes next year, and the roadmap could extend to 2013 and beyond. "One of my observations is that HP tries to do a lot of things," she said. "And I am big believer in doing a small number of things really, really well -- set them up, knock them down, set them up, knock them down.", says Whitman.

HP already has the windows-powered Slate 500 for businesses, but the product never got quite the popularity the company would have liked. For the Windows 8 tablets, there are no set plans as of now, but we expect them to lay before the holidays, at least after the November earning announcements.

The first tablet to feature Windows 8 officially was the Samsung Series 7 tablet.

WebOS plans

There are no plans as of now. Whitman mentions that HP is still figuring out what to do with the OS. In fact the company is closely watching the possibilities of a long-term future for the tablets.

"We are continuing to focus on Microsoft-based tablet that we have and one that will develop on Windows based," he said. "I think from a WebOS perspective that's kind of the next piece of work to complete.... The whole team of Meg, Cathie [Lesjak], myself, John Visentin are working very, very hard and as quickly as we can to make the right decisions about that product."

Los Angeles Times reports of Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's personal systems group, assuring that the company never meant to give up on tablets. This makes me confirm our guess that the confusion has been around WebOS and not any other platform. So why was the decision to sell the whole PC division at the first place – a division that has done so well for the company!

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