Last night, HP announced it would use the Palm/WebOS in its PCs later this year. According to RBS this could help ARM penetrate the PC market as the WebOS is based on ARM CPUs.
Didier Scemama at RBS says:
“We believe this announcement is potentially significant for ARM as HP, the leading PC vendor, intends to use a different OS than MSFT’s Windows, in its PCs.
“Currently all HP’s PCs are based on x86 processors from INTC or AMD.
“While it is unclear which architecture (x86 or ARM) these webOS PCs will use, we believe.
“ARM would be a logical choice since all existing WebOS smartphones and tablets run on ARM CPUs.
“HP commented that its strategy going forward would be to link all devices (PCs, smartphones, tablets, printers, …) so that they can communicate seamlessly. They see WebOS as the way to achieve this vision.
“We also note that the HP slide that supported the WebOS-based PC announcement showed not only a notebook PC but also a desktop PC, suggesting that HP has got big ambitions for WebOS.”
RBS have a target price of 625 on ARM Holdings Plc