Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been preparing to launch a Windows 7 tablet computer ("slate PC") built by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), but HP's planned acquisition of Palm may be throwing a wrench in the works.

A main selling point for the HP-Palm deal was Palm's own mobile operating system, or WebOS, and HP has said it wants to use it as the foundation of its next generation tablet computers and smartphones, writes Olga Kharif at BusinessWeek. HP's latest acquisition suggests it may not have complete confidence in Windows, according to some analysts, but the two companies continue to assert their partnership publicly.

In the rumor-mongering section of the Internet, though, things are looking a bit rougher for Microsoft in light of the HP-Palm union.  Michael Arrington at TechCrunch writes that an anonymous source said HP has scrapped the Windows 7 tablet computer project.

Arrington doesn't have a great deal of confidence in Palm's WebOS emerging on top in the battle to run tablet computers, however. "Will WebOS emerge as a successful operating system for tablet devices? That seems very unlikely given the dominance of the closed Apple OS and the likely success of the open Android and Chrome operating systems from Google," he writes. "HP knows how to build and sell hardware, not operating systems."

For more:
- see Olga Kharif's article at BusinessWeek
- see Michael Arrington's post at TechCrunch

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