What's HP up to?

I must admit, the news that HP is buying Palm caught me by surprise. My first reaction: "huh?" That's because the first thing that came to mind was iPaq. Why would iPaq plus Palm be a winner? Two rocks don't float any better than one. Then I thought about where HP might be going with this; perhaps this is the start of a break from Microsoft OS-based products. HP could turn their current line of tablet PCs and mobile thin clients into a WebOS products. No more licensing fees to Microsoft and much higher margins for HP. Not a bad outcome if they can make desirable products. This will be fun to watch.