HP is looking to include support for its webOS operating system on every PC it manufactures, in order to broaden the potential appeal of the platform, Bloomberg reports. The company has already announced smartphones and tablets powered by the platform, and webOS-capable printers have also been mooted previously. In the case of PCs, it is likely that webOS will run in an emulator on top of Windows, rather than as a “native” operating system, due to the differing demands between resource-constrained terminals and PCs.

So far, webOS has gained little support from developers due to its limited penetration – it has so-far only been used in a handful of Palm-branded smartphones. However, by extending support across HP’s entire product range, there will be a much larger addressable user base, which should make it more appealing. While PCs will obviously be able to support a wide range of fully-fledged software programmes, webOS may prove appealing for “lite” apps which can be used by customers across different terminals.