Wishful Thinking in Palo Alto

I’m reading through Engadget‘s liveblog of HP’s big “Think Beyond” webOS event, and this picture really says a thousand words.

Look closely and you’ll see that HP’s Jon Rubinstein is claiming that in the “2011 OS Bowl,” Windows Phone 7 beats iOS, that webOS beats Android, and the two winners will battle it out for market domination… and webOS wins!

In 2010, webOS commanded 1.3% of the smartphone market. That’s about 1/15th of either Apple’s or Android’s share. Now, HP does look to have some nice devices coming out this year, including a smart looking tablet with a “planned availability” sometime this summer — three months or longer after iPad 2 and Xoom 1 hit the shelves.

So if I had to guess, I’d say consumers are already thinking beyond webOS. Way beyond.