WebOS Developers Win a Dream Date With HP

Hewlett-Packard has a bunch of webOS hardware in the pipeline–smartphones and other Web-connected devices. And when it ships them, app developers–even those who defected from webOS creator Palm–will be falling over themselves to write software for them.

This according to HP’s (HPQ) defacto webOS evangelist Rahul Sood, who says we’ll see the first fruits of the HP-Palm union in the year ahead. “…Over the next 12 months we will see the makings of a new portfolio and the beginning of something great again,” Sood said this week. “There are great things to come that fit multiple types of consumers. Over time you will see the community grow. You will see app developers flock to HP as they jockey for position in the catalog. All of this may sound like a dream but it’s completely attainable.”

Figuring prominently in that dream, webOS 2.0–scheduled to be released later this year, and a slate (or “PalmPad“) that will run it. As I’ve reported here before, the latter is expected at market sometime in early 2011. According to Phil McKinney, CTO for HP’s Personal Systems Group, that’s still a hard date.