Last week, Ken Werner reported on HP’s $1.2B acquisition of Palm in his Display Daily. Today, I want to look at it from a different angle - mobile TV and IP.

The news has generated a lot of discussion, both pro and con. While some feel that the acquisition could open up new opportunities for HP in the lucrative cellphone market, others question the likelihood of developing a successful new mobile product, based upon the poor market results of each company’s past smartphone offerings.

But there’s more to Palm than just the history of their past devices. In their joint press release, HP’s Todd Bradley (executive vice president of the Personal Systems Group, which handles business and consumer PCs, mobile computing devices and workstations) said, "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." He also added "…and Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team…" And Jon Rubinstein, chairman and CEO of Palm, said, "We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners."

It would seem from these statements that an expanded foray into mobile devices could be one of the goals of this acquisition. We suspect this could go well beyond just smartphones. At last month’s National Association of Broadcasters conference, one of the prominent themes was "mobile TV," with devices and services emerging from many key players. Among them was Dell, showing a specially-equipped Inspiron Mini 10 netbook receiving mobile DTV broadcasts. Dell will also participate in the on-air trials hosted by the Open Mobile Video Coalition starting this month in Washington, D.C.

So netbooks could figure significantly in this new market for mobile DTV devices, notwithstanding some reports claiming (on April 1, no less) the majors could in fact be exiting the netbook market. A Dell spokesperson quickly responded to the rumors, saying, "What is being reported has no basis in fact."

Over at HP, their Mini 110 netbook (or a derivative, like the recently leaked Slate tablet) could be a likely candidate for mobile DTV service too, and the patents acquired in the Palm takeover could put the company in a very competitive position. A search of the US patent database shows more than 600 patents assigned to Palm, Inc. Of these, nearly 100 include the word "display" in the abstract. Here is a sample of some of the patents, which we believe are of particular interest to our readers:

• * Dynamic brightness range for portable computer displays based on ambient conditions
• * Moveable display device for three dimensional image creation
• * Panoramic display for a wireless device
• * Interchangeable display modules for portable handheld devices
• * Terminal with projection display
• * Flexible screen display with touch sensor
• * Compact integrated touch panel display
• * Device for providing location-based data

Any new product usually takes at least one year to bring to market. But, the intellectual property that HP acquired could already be finding its way into a new product already in development. And, some of these patents may already be in use by competing companies, which could put HP into an even more advantageous position. At an effective cost of about $2M per patent, the acquisition deal is certainly not about intellectual property alone (especially as there can’t be a use for all the patents), but together with the capital and human assets of Palm, it might not be such a bad deal, from a strategic standpoint.-agc