Speculation is mounting that Taiwanese handset vendor HTC is to enter the crowded mobile operating system market, either by acquiring Palm’s well-regarded webOS or developing its own platform. The firm’s CFO, Cheng Hui-ming, was guarded on the firm’s mobile OS plans in an interview with Bloomberg this week. “We continue to assess, but that requires a few conditions to justify [having our own platform],” Cheng said. “There are many multiple factors to be considered together, rather than a simple statement as to own or not to own [proprietary software].” HTC has no timeframe for deciding whether to have its own platform, he added.

Cheng also declined to comment on whether HTC has studied smartphone rival Palm for possible acquisition. It was reported this week that Palm is working with Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer – with HTC tipped as a possible suitor. One key asset in the Palm business is the firm’s webOS smartphone operating system, which powers its high-profile Pre and Pixi devices. Although sales of the devices have been disappointing to date, webOS is highly-regarded in the industry. Another option reportedly being considered at struggling Palm is for it to stop manufacturing altogether and instead allow other handset vendors to license the webOS platform. If HTC were to make such a move it would intensify competition in the already crowded mobile OS space. HTC is the currently the largest vendor of devices based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform and was the first to release a handset based on Google’s Android. “If you look at the successful smartphone players, like Apple and Research in Motion, a reason for their success is that they have their own platform,” RBS Asia analyst Steven Tseng told Bloomberg. “The negative is the amount of resources they’d need to allocate.”