webOS Coming To Printers

Tweet

That’s right, HP spent $1.2 billion on Palm so they wouldn’t have to write software to run their printers. Joking aside, today during HP’s Q2 earnings call, the HP-Palm deal was a hot topic as you can imagine, and HP CEO Mark Hurd expanded on what HP’s plans are for webOS, and it includes printers.

Shortly after news of the HP-Palm deal were made public, several HP executives made public comments like “We wanted to double down on webOS” and “HP is investing heavily in webOS”. So, we already knew that webOS was a big part of the deal for HP, but Hurd expanded.

Hurd said regarding webOS:

[We acquired Palm] in order to enhance our intellectual property…in the connected-mobility space. We expect to leverage WebOS into a variety of form factors, including slates and Web-connected printers. With a whole series of Web-connected printers, as they connect to the Web, they need an OS.

Don’t make fun of HP – Printers are a big business for them and printing has always been a big part of mainstream computer users. HP’s printer business made $6.4 billion (!) in revenue for HP last year, apart of the total $30 billion in revenues for HP, the world’s largest computer manufacturer.

Remember the old days when printers plugged into the back of your computer via a serial cable and didn’t do anything otherwise? Now, they’re getting more and more advanced all the time. Erica Ogg at CNET points out that HP’s TouchSmart Web series of printers is pretty fairly advanced, and allows you to print from the web.

As HP continues to evolve their printer technology, webOS will be a nice addition.

Oh yeah, we’ll still probably see them put webOS on tablets and smartphones, but HP’s Mark Hurd seems pretty enthusiastic about webOS on printers. Are you as excited for webOS on printers?