I didn’t include HP in the mix, thinking that its tight relationship with Microsoft over the years might preclude it from opting for an alternative operating environment. But, come to think of it, Palm’s early successes were built on handheld devices that did a super job of synching up with info in Microsoft Exchange Services and Outlook clients. As for its WebOS, Todd Bradey, executive VP of HP’s personal systems group said in the company’s press release, “Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices.”

$1.2 billion sounds like a steep price for HP to pay to re-enter the smartphone business, but it also indicates that HP has high expectations for Palm’s products, services and software. It is likely to use WebOS as an application platform and run-time for a broad line of mobile devices, including a re-vamped version of its tablet PC, which was sort of a dud when shown off by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Only time will tell whether the purchase will be accretive or not.

When Palm introduced WebOS, there was grounds to be excited, as I noted here. However, many of the design concepts (of easy, browser-based access and navigation to anything on the Web) have been incorporated into Android, not to mention Microsoft Phone. All three make mobile phone users largely indifferent to whether they are invoking an application that is resident on the device or a Web service that is essentially rendered or executed on the device.

But if you’re an application or service developer, it’s an entirely different story. So-called “platform fragmentation” is the bane of the app developing public. Just about every day, we’re asked to handicap or rank “which mobile OS (or OSes) are gonna provide a large enough group of paying users?” The iPhone is a given for many. Not so much for its overall potential, but for the near term visibility, clear path to market (whether you like Apple’s T’s & C’s or not) and revenue generating capability. Android is next, just based on hope and Google’s gravitas. Then there’s anything that can be rendered in Java inside a HTML-conforming environment (fostered by the promise of resources like Appcelerator, which help developers write the code once and have it rendered on many platforms.

Next comes a range of tier three options. Business-oriented app developers have their sights set on BlackBerry. Those with global aspirations put Nokia and Symbian on their roadmap. But it’s hard to imagine how Samsung’s recently introduced mobile OS, Bada, is a good idea at this point.

Further fragmentation of the Apps – and device – market occurs at the retail level. Palm (and the WebOS-based devices) fell victim to insufficient support at the retail level. Its CEO believes that it may be corrected by more and better sales training, but that’s not likely to solve the dual problems of mobile buyer confusion and indifference. Let’s face it, the pro’s and con’s of mobile operating systems are “Inside Baseball” chatter for gadget geeks. There’s no “I want my MTV!” like fervor to be built around Windows Phone or WebOS. Then there’s the issue of loyalty which, in the case of mobile phones or devices, is more like a fashion show economy.

In his article, Colin Gibbs laid out long odds for the likes of Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft and Cisco to purchase Palm or its assets. He admits that it’s a partial list and that others our bound to emerge, especially as the stock price approaches target $0, at which point I would wonder why a tech-savvy turnaround specialist, like Silverlake or its partner TPG, which bought Avaya might not take a look. In the meantime, Palm-loyalists should start looking into how their favorite applications and services can be rendered in other HTML-based environments.

As reported by Schonfeld, there are some neat call handling tricks going on behind the scenes to enable a mobile app to initiate a call through the browser. But the end users will find a familiar “inbox” complete with SMS, transcribed voice messages (such as they are) and call records for phone calls received or originated using their assigned Google Voice number.

“Cord-cutting” is a major trend underlying Recombinant Communications. Google is joined by Ribbit Mobile, Truphone, fring and even the mother of all VoIP providers Skype are evolving and extending their range and product depth over smartphones. In making the move, each is demonstrating how far we have moved beyond inexpensive international calling and single number service.