The world's biggest PC and printing company Hewlett Packard (HP) confirmed that the company will be launching its smartphone; however, no official time frame is available.

Recently, HP announced the launch of its Mobility division to focus on consumer tablets. Nokia's ex-MeeGo boss Alberto Torres will run the division. HP's CEO, Meg Whitman, confirmed "We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that would be your first computing device."

Whitman further added "We are a computing company, we have to take advantage of that form factor."

Rumors surfaced that HP is working on an all-touch smartphone codenamed the Stingray. "Transparent House, a design firm that has done work for HP, just made a video titled 'Products - HP Palm - WindsorNot' public after almost nine months. It's a short look at a webOS phone virtually identical to the project codenamed Stingray from April of 2011, with no keyboard and a rectangular profile," reported The Verge.

With Whitman indicating that HP will offer smartphones, it may not come as a surprise if the company reintroduces webOS, its own mobile operating system, which was initially developed by Palm.

The news of a HP smartphone has come a few weeks after the company announced a flat third quarter. The highly-competitive smartphone market is full of big-wigs like Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia et al. HP will surely face stiff competition and time will tell if its smartphones can turn the fortunes of the company.