Of course, you would think that HP engineers would be savvy enough to not submit data from a test product, but we’ve seen this happen with other brands before (it could be an orchestrated leak too), so it’s plausible.
According to the specifications, the screen resolution is 1366×720 and the main chip is a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 which can already be found in the Atrix HD, HTC One X (dual-core) and RAZR Maxx HD — that would mean that this is a new hardware, and not some old Palm device that is running Android.
Of course, HP can most definitely enter the market whenever it wants. After all, there are a number of ODMs (Original Design Manufacturers) that already work for HP on laptop designs, and they would like nothing more than to come up with a smartphone and/or tablet design for the company. It is really up to HP to figure out how to enter that market and what added-value to bring.
It’s not very hard to think that HP may try to enter a “business” phone market of some sort, but hopefully we’ve all learned that business-oriented devices are increasingly becoming a nice which is threatened by the BYOD (bring your own device) trend.
On the other hand, it is a bit surprising if HP did not come up with some Windows phone designs, given that they already have experience with that eco-system. In any case, if HP wants to enter the market with that particular device, it should happen within the next couple of quarters because the smartphone world will soon jump onto a new generation of chips and displays.
[Images courtesy of Slashgear.]