HP Rebrands webOS Platform, Soon Will Launch Palm Pre 2

The Palm webOS brand no longer exists.

HP, which bought Palm for $1.2 billion in April of this year, has changed the mobile operating systems name to HP webOS 2.0.

OK, so the new name isnt a dramatic change, and, neither is the reformulated platform, it seems. Theres an added just type” feature that lets users compose e-mail or start a Web search. Maybe we need to see this function in action because it sounds lame. But HP webOS 2.0 does have something going for it that may attract fans: it includes Adobes Flash 10.1 player, unlike Apples iOS (and just like Googles Android).

HP, which has been expanding its profit bases such as mobile devices and data storage, will release webOS 2.0 as an over-the-air upgrade to Palms older Pre and Pixi phones, according to reports. However, theres no word on whether the update will be free.

The webOS 2.0 comes as HP prepares to release the Palm Pre 2 an inspired name, is it not? in France later this week (riotous protestors can take photos with a 5-megapixel camera!). The phone has a 3.1-inch HVGA resolution multi-touch glass-front display, 16GB of internal storage, Exchange support, Wi-Fi radio and an upgraded 1Ghz processor with 512MB of RAM.

In the United States, Verizon Wireless will get its hands on the Palm Pre 2 some time later this year but reviewers say theres little improvement over the previous Palm Pre. The blogospheres consensus is that Palm phones need new hardware, more than anything. HP started life as a hardware company, yes, but its expertise has not been in mobile devices. And so far, Palm hasnt done a good job of keeping pace with the competition, so perhaps HP needs an entirely new smartphone braintrust.