Now that Blackberry is giving its a market a little more wiggle room and introducing a smartphone that’s geared at both work and play, it’s not surprising to see other companies try and pull off the same feat. What is surprising, is when that company is HP.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which cites “people briefed on the plan,” the company will soon be launching a smartphone. Surprise number one out of the way, these folks say it will hit Europe in two months time, but wait, there’s more ; this phone from HP, a company known to be all corporate, will also be marketed at consumers.

So aside from this news being completely left of field, what else do we know ? The WSJ reports that the phone will be the next device in the company’s line of iPaq devices that the company has been selling for the last six years or so, however, previous units were targeted at businesses and not sold through retail stores.

We can only assume that HP, like everyone else, sees the cash cow in marketing smartphones outside of the corporate market because, shocker, it’s not just the suits who send emails. Although, competing with the likes of the iPhone 3G, which has been trying to get it’s foot in the corporate door all summer, the Blackberry, which RIM is now turning into a social/business phone and HTC’s soon to be released G1, we can’t see the next iPaq making much of a splash unless it’s really, really pretty. There’s an ample amount of smartphones on the market already, so an attractive UI and an innovative design will at least give it a leg up. Shallow times we’re living in.

Read the original report on the WSJ