X-Plane for Officejet? HP to Put Palm’s webOS in Printers.

That Hewlett-Packard plans to use Palm’s webOS in smartphones, netbooks and tablets is self-evident. That the company intends to use the Palm operating system in printers? Well, that’s a bit of a surprise, although given the size of HP’s printing business, it shouldn’t be.

Asked about the HP’s plans for the OS during an earnings call Tuesday, CEO Mark Hurd added printers to the list of future webOS devices. “We expect to leverage webOS in a number of form factors, including slates and Web-connected printers,” he said. “We’ve got a whole series of Web-connected printers now and as they connect to the Web, they need an OS.”

And webOS is a good one, though just how it might be leveraged in printers is an interesting question. The Officejet doesn’t exactly lend itself to playing X-Plane or Need for Speed.

In any event, HP (HPQ) clearly has big plans for Palm’s (PALM) platform. As I wrote back in April, “Mark my words, today is the beginning of a new HP ecosystem–smartphones, connected devices, apps and the OS that ties them all together.”

Make that smartphones, connected devices, apps, printers and the OS that ties them all together.