HP (NYSE: HPQ) has confirmed its plans to make use of Palm's webOS in future tablets and netbook devices. In a statement released by HP to announce that its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm has been completed, the company noted that "Palm will be responsible for webOS software development and webOS-based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks."

While the announcement hardly comes as a surprise, it nevertheless puts a new spin to the current tussle between Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS, Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android, and upcoming Chrome OS to become the dominant platform on tablets and other portable devices.

In addition, this news casts further doubts about whether the Windows-based Slate tablet showcased by HP at CES earlier this year will come to fruition, or be quietly scrapped. HP's statement last Thursday doesn't shed any light on this particular area, however.  According to Bloomberg, the Palm business unit will report to Todd Bradley, who is the executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Businessweek
- check out this article at ChannelWeb

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