HP CEO Mark Hurd spoke at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Technology conference yesterday and had some bad news for webOS smartphone users. Hurd told the group that HP wasn't going to "spend billions of dollars trying to get into the smartphone business; that doesn't in any way make any sense."

Hurd went on to say, "we didn't buy Palm to be in the smartphone business. And I tell people that, but it doesn't seem to resonate well."

We understand that HP wants to put webOS on zillions of web connected devices that have nothing to do with smartphones, but c'mon HP. Having your foot in the smartphone business is the best way to get people to adopt your OS so that when they see the same OS on another device its easy for them to navigate.

Let's hope that Mr. Hurd was simply trying to explain HP's desire to put webOS on many other devices in addition to smartphones, and did not intend to communicate a desire to get out of the smartphone business.