Hewlett Packard will keep a foot in the tablet space as it looks to compete in the enterprise space with plans to make new tablets on the Windows 8 platform.

HP said in August that it would spin off the Personal Systems Group and exit from the mobile phone and tablet business on its WebOS platform. While the company said last week that it wants to keep the Personal Systems Group and make more tablets, the future of its WebOS platform is uncertain.

?HP is still very committed to tablets and is going to make Windows 8 tablets,? said Rhoda Alexander, director tablet and monitor research, IHS, El Segundo, CA.

?What they?ve left uncertain at this point is their commitment to WebOS,? she said.

?As we see tablets evolving in the Windows platform, we see it being geared largely toward enterprise and commercial interests, with consumers second. Tablets are being bought into enterprise to be productive while providing a lot of the flexibility.?

A chaotic year
HP said this week that it has completed a review of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group and will keep the unit a part the company as it looks to compete more effectively in the enterprise space.

New HP CEO Meg Whitman also told investors that HP needs to be in the tablet business and that it will make another run at the business with tablets on Windows 8.

The Personal Systems Group is home to HP?s PC business as well as its WebOS-based devices.

The news left unclear what HP plans to do with its WebOS platform or whether it plans to build additional WebOS-based smartphones and tablets, with HP saying it would make a decision about the long-term future of WebOS within HP over the next couple of months.

The company may decide to shut down the WebOS business completely, as the mobile devices introduced by HP on WebOS have not had much of an impact on the market. 

HP acquired the WebOS platform through its purchase of Palm in 2010 for $1.2 billion.

This has been a tough year for HP, with its stock losing value and a change over at the top in September when Ms. Whitman became CEO.

?They?ve been headed in a certain direction in the past year and clearly needed a course correction,? Ms. Alexander said ?This is part of that overall course correction.?

HP has huge resources committed on the PC side and was already making Windows tablets, per Ms. Alexander.

While enterprise tablet use is growing, Windows tablets make up just a fraction of the total tablet market, per Ms. Alexander.

Still, HP and others feel there is potential for tablets in the enterprise space.

?For anybody who is in the PC business, they are looking across the whole spectrum of the mobile platform and the impact of mobile demand on future PC demand and where they have to position themselves in that,? Ms. Alexander said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York