HP hires former Nokia MeeGo executive Alberto Torres for new consumer tablet division

HP has announced the creation of a new Mobility division, which will focus on the consumer tablet market, hiring former Nokia MeeGo executive Alberto Torres to oversee the new division.

The news comes just days after HP announced that it was spinning off its WebOS Global Business Unit, originally known as Palm Computing, into a wholly-owned but independent subsidiary called Gram.

Last month, it emerged that Torres’ former colleagues from Nokia’s MeeGo N9 division had launched a new start-up called Jolla in order to continue developing smartphones based on Nokia’s now-abandoned MeeGo platform.

Meanwhile, HP put development of a tablet based on Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows RT platform on hold, following Microsoft’s announcement of its Surface tablet, stating at the time the company would continue to develop x86-based Windows tablets for the enterprise market.

In an internal leaked email published by The Verge, HP’s head of printing and personal systems, Todd Bradley, said:

“Our new Mobility Global Business Unit initially will focus on consumer tablets and will expand to additional segments and categories where we believe we can offer differentiated value to our customers.

Our existing notebook teams, including our soon-to-be launched commercial tablet, will remain within the PC [Global Business Unit] under James Mouton at this time.”

“To lead the Mobility GBU, I am thrilled to announce that we have recruited a proven executive from the mobile-device industry. Alberto Torres, who most recently oversaw the MeeGo products and platform at Nokia as Executive Vice President, will join HP as Senior Vice President of Mobility, reporting to me.”

“Alberto’s first order of business will be to accelerate our tablet strategy and begin to execute products against our consumer/SMB target. The exact structure of his team will follow that strategy.”