HP Gets A Mobile Hand From Palm

You can certainly count on one of two things when I’m traveling overseas, particularly in Asia.

There will either be a natural disaster in the vicinity, or a major tech acquisition.

In May 2008 in a trip to Beijing, it was both: I felt the tremors on the far outskirts of the Sichuan quake in China, and HP announced it’s intent to acquire EDS.

Today, while in Sydney, though the real ground isn’t quaking, there was an announcement that HP intended to acquire Palm for $1.2B.

TechCrunch’s MG Siegler suggests the move’s not so much for the hardware, but rather to gain access to Palm’s 1,500+ patents and its webOS, which HP will be able to use in its own slate and mobile operations.

Also, check out ReadWriteWeb’s “smartest tweets” already emerging on this deal.

Whether or not the acquisition will give HP a mobile hand up remains to be seen, but anything that provides a countervailing force to Apple’s iPhone juggernaut and the gaining momentum of the Google Android is probably a good thing.

Meanwhile, back at the IBM mobile computing ranch, I’ll remind you of the strong hand that’s been emerging out of Lotus on this front.

IBM is helping customers big and small get access to their critical business information while on the move, including with products such as IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, IBM Lotus iNotes (for iPhone connectivity), and our VPN solution, IBM Lotus Mobile Connect (which is what I’m often using to stay tethered to the Big Blue Mother ship during my travels.)

To learn more about IBM Lotus mobility solutions, you can sign up for this webcast series.

No natural disasters required.