Hewlett Packard, the world's largest personal computer maker, is in a period of transition.  It's releasing 9,000 employees and hiring 6,000 new ones.  And it just purchased Palm at the end of April for $1.2B USD.

That acquisition gives HP access to webOS, a powerful mobile internet device operating system.  HP is already rumored to be cooking up a webOS tablet -- dubbed "Hurricane".  However, according to Mark Hurd, HP's Chief Executive Officer, the company is not planning to launch or market new Palm smart phones.

Hurd commented at a Bank of America Merill Lynch technology conference, "We didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn’t seem to resonate well. We bought it for the IP. The webOS is one of the two ground-up pieces of software that is built as a web operating environment…We have tens of millions of HP small form factor web-connected devices…Now imagine that being a web-connected environment where now you can get a common look and feel and a common set of services laid against that environment. That is a very value proposition."

He adds that the company isn't going to "spend billions of dollars trying to go into the smartphone business; that doesn’t in any way make any sense."

The idea that HP bought Palm only to turn around and let the veteran smartphone maker's core business die indeed strikes some as bizarre.  Adding to the confusion is that HP's rival Dell is soon going to be unleashing smartphones powered by Android OS and Windows Phone 7.

However, HP seems dead set not to spend the money required to continue to design and produce smartphone handsets.  In that sense, webOS smartphones have become a threatened species -- past the current generation, it sounds unlikely that any new hardware will arrive.

Instead, HP will use its webOS assets to power devices such as tablets or web-enabled printers.  It also looks to use other assets in Palm's rich intellectual property portfolio, a byproduct of its pioneering role in the PDA and smartphone movements.  In that sense, even if HP sticks to its word about smartphones, its modest investment may soon pay off.

Updated 5/3/2010 @ 6:15 pm EST

According to Engadget, HP is clarifying Hurd's comments about webOS on smartphones. Here's the response from HP: