Exclusive: HP’s Android Tablet Tabled

Hewlett Packard is working on a variety of tablet PCs, running a variety of operating systems. Among them, an Android device that was supposed to arrive at market in the fourth quarter of 2010. But no longer. Sources in position to know tell me that HP’s Android slate has been delayed and won’t ship before the end of the year as planned.

Why? That’s not entirely clear, but evidently the tablet has been tabled–at least for the time being.

Perhaps, HP (HPQ) has decided to focus its resources on the future webOS slate PC that its new Palm unit is developing. That device has a rumored fall launch date, and we’re already halfway through summer.

Or perhaps the company is reconsidering its multi-OS tablet strategy in light of the Palm acquisition. After all, HP has said repeatedly it is “doubling down” on webOS. “We’re going to increase [R&D spending on webOS],” HP’s Jim Burns said during a conference call announcing the deal. “And we’re going to increase sales and marketing as well. We’re going to take this platform, which today exists for smartphones only, and make it much broader than that.”

Seems that would be a lot easier to pull off if the company wasn’t simultaneously developing slates for three different operating systems–webOS, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 7 and Google’s (GOOG) Android.

Perhaps, HP has concluded the same thing.