Palm’s innovative WebOS mobile platform is poised to make a comeback — complete with “robust” new smartphones, netbooks and even a tablet — according to HP’s announcement Thursday that it has completed its approximately $1.2 billion acquisition of the pioneering smartphone maker.

Former Palm CEO and Chairman Jon Rubinstein will now report to HP exec Todd Bradley, who runs the tech giant’s Personal Systems team, HP said in a press release issued Thursday.

Of course, the big question was whether Palm’s new, WebOS-powered line of smartphones would live on. The answer appears to be yes.

“Palm will be responsible for WebOS software development and WebOS-based hardware products,” HP’s press release says, “from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.”

There’s not much more in the way of detail, unfortunately. Still, HP’s statement in support of WebOS is certainly more encouraging than recent (and ultimately “clarified”) remarks by HP boss Mark Hurd, who said this month that “we didn’t Palm to be in the smartphone business … we bought it for the IP” (intellectual property).

Naturally, that mention of “slate” PCs in the HP press release brings to mind the HP Slate, a highly touted Windows 7-based tablet that was rumored to have been shelved after the Palm deal was announced. Conventional wisdom had it that HP may have killed off the Windows-based Slate in favor of a tablet powered by its newly acquired WebOS platform.

So … is that indeed the case? Not necessarily, says HP, which told CNET’s Tom Krazit in a statement that the company is in “customer evaluations now and will make a determination soon on the next steps.” Not much of an answer, although HP might be tipping its hand a bit when it adds that it “hadn’t anticipated the Palm acquisition when we first shared our plans” for the Slate.

As much as I’m looking forward to seeing some WebOS-powered tablets and netbooks, I’m also eager to see what Palm has in store in terms of a new generation of smartphones. The touchscreen Pre and Pixi, now about a year old are looking positively ancient compared to today’s superphones, and the WebOS platform itself is due for a revamp.

It’s also encouraging to see that Rubinstein will remain at the helm of Palm, at least for now, although there’s no doubt that Palm has suffered a serious brain drain in the weeks and months leading up to and following its acquisition by HP.

Via Yahoo