Apparently, HP’s deal to buy Palm is all about the WebOS and the IP. The company might be more than content to either sell off the Palm smartphone business or to even just let it die. The company does think that the WebOS will find its way into a number of HP products going forward, such as the WebOS-based tablet product called codename Hurricane. It is unknown if the Hurricane is based on anything that Palm already had in its labs or not.

HP has no desire to turn around Palm’s smartphone business. The cost to compete in the smartphone space would cost HP millions and millions of dollars, and apparently HP can’t justify the investment. This decision is in stark contrast to Dell which is cranking up the Android and Windows Phone 7 offerings for a number of devices that will carry the Dell brand.

While Palm does have a number of other patents and IP that make the company valuable, the thought of HP just dumping the smartphone business like a load of toxic waste just makes some cringe. HP could sell of the smartphone business if someone wanted to buy it, but according to those we spoke with, this isn’t likely.