As expected, HP is set to use its recent acquisition of Palm to develop smartphone, netbook and tablet devices based on the webOS platform. Having stumped up $1.2 billion to get Palm (and dumping the ‘HP Slate’ tablet device like a bad habit earlier this year), reports today indicate that HP aims to create a new “unified cloud-based environment accessible from a range of mobile devices”.

In a promising move, Jon Rubinstein, former Palm chairman and chief executive officer, will move to HP as leader of the devices group there. Okay, Palm wasn’t the roaring success it longed to be but Rubenstein was one of the main brains behind the iPod and, it seems to be widely accepted that he was instrumental in turning Apple’s fortunes around in the late 90s.

Rubinstein joined Palm as executive chairman in 2007, and assumed the role of CEO in June 2009. Market experts Informa Telecoms & Media believes that it is “important for HP” to retain Rubinstein and keep him at the forefront of the development of webOS.

PC World in the the meantime, reports that the WebOS-based tablet will come with features not offered by Apple’s device, including USB ports and Flash support.

It is also speculated that HP will be able to offer close integration with Microsoft servers and desktop applications to users, due to its close ties with the software maker.