HP Thinks it "Must" Offer its own Smart Phone

HP CEO Meg Whitman offers a simple explanation for HP's belief that the company "has to" sell its own smart phone.

"We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that is your first computing device," says Whitman. "You know, there will be countries around the world where people may never own a tablet, or a PC, or a desktop."

"They will do everything on the smartphone," Whitman says. "We’re a computing company; we have to take advantage of that form factor."

The logic is sound enough, but whether HP is simply too late is the issue. It's hard to imagine how HP comes up with a differentiated offer or a big enough application store on its own.

HP seems almost forced to try to leverage an existing mobile OS and developer community, such as Android operating system ecosystem, or possibly the Windows Phone platform, though the applications community for Windows now is much smaller than that of Android.

But going with Android means taking on the likes of Samsung. Having stumbled with its Palm acquisition, HP is unlikely to want to make the same mistake by buying Research in Motion.

Whitman makes a cogent argument for why HP has to be in smart phones. What remains to be seen is how HP can pull that off.