In case the impact of Apple (News - Alert)has been lost on us all, the acquistion of Palm by HP sets up the new market verticals.

Computing, Communication and Entertainment are all coming to us in massively mobile devices. Phones, Slates, Netbooks, computing all meeting together and heading toward a WebOS model.

Again and again, the question we face is: Are we moving to a Web-based model or an integrated hardware model? Apple's the system that brought pay per use distribution back can be thought of as the shot gun for this wedding.

But just because they are joined does not make this an easily understood marriage.

The webOS is a good platform in theory, but it has been hard for the application developers to find the momentum.

However, it has been a strategy to support cloud computing services and HP certainly sells into that market.

It was worth noting that HP pointed out they supply the servers for the eight of the top 10 carriers.

Reading between the lines, that could mean that they have some designs on supporting carrier labeling strategies.

Its also further proof that the future of mobility is all about computing power.

That said, the question remains: Will HP mean anything different for the way Palm works? Unlike Apple, both companies have been fairly prolific on delivery devices without necessarily providing a vision of integration.

During a Webcast just now with HP officials, a very pointed question was asked about the expectation to work with content providers - and it was tabled.

So if nothing changes, probably nothing changes in how these companies roll out devices, which would be a shame.

In our house, we still use our Palm desktop, because it was still the most flexible system for us to add names. The tablet I am typing on is an HP as are about half the PCs in the house. I can root for their success. It would be nice to see a core of communication and personal address management result from this merger, but I have a Palm 7 and an IPAQ so I can also imagine stranded dreams.

My contact lists are always pretty isolate, but I have to admit the use of Gmail with Blackberry integrates better than I expected.

I wish them luck on carving a new path together, but I am not sure what they want to sell me.

Carl Ford (News - Alert) (News - Alert)is a partner at Crossfire Media.

Edited by Michael Dinan