Bailing on the promising WebOS-driven TouchPad so early must, by now, seem like a strategic blunder for HP.

It’s trying to make good at this horribly late stage – even more horribly late than Microsoft – by getting back into the fray…with Android. Good news for Google; probably not such encouraging stuff for Microsoft.

HP, which is duking it out with Lenovo for the top PC maker spot, is well-aware that PC sales cycles are getting longer as consumers defer upgrades and as tablets increasingly look like the preferred way of computing.

With tablet sales growing in the double-digits, it has little choice but to (re) extend its portfolio in this direction.

Just how important tablets are in the PC market becomes clearer in this telling paragraph from Readwrite: “HP recently regained the top spot in the PC market by leapfrogging Lenovo, according to research firm Canalys.

However, HP leads the PC market only when tablets are taken out of the equation. If tablets are counted as PCs, Apple jumps to first with 27 million units shipped in Q4 2012 and HP falls to second place with just 15 million PCs shipped.”

The choice of Android by a long-time Microsoft loyalist is, however, likely to raise a few eyebrows on a certain hill in Seattle. Especially as M$ steps up its fight with Google.

Meanwhile, HP must surely be kicking itself over that WebOS/TouchPad misadventure.