HP CEO Hints That webOS Might Be Licensed Out

In an interview with This Is My Next, HP’s CEO Leo Apotheker was quoted as saying:

Q: You might license to WebOS. That puts you in direct competition with Microsoft?

Leo: I happen to believe that WebOS is a uniquely outstanding operating system. It’s not correct to believe that it should only be on HP devices. There are all kinds of other people who want to make whatever kind of hardware they make and would like to connect them to the Internet. We’ll make it available to enteprises and to SMBs. It will run on lots of HP devices.

Q: Would you license it to HTC?

Leo: It is certainly something we would entertain.

As it stands webOS is limited only to HP products, but the idea that they might be licensing out their webOS seems like it could be a way for them to start gaining some ground in the smartphone market which is largely dominated by iOS and Android. At the very least it should be giving Microsoft a run for their money, especially if other phone manufacturers such as Samsung or HTC do pick up the licenses to develop webOS smartphones. Would you pick up a webOS phone currently, or do you think that webOS on another manufacturer’s device would be more appealing?