Palm CEO Jonathan Rubinstein's declaration yesterday that the company will focus all of its future devices on its webOS operating system, no longer making any Windows Mobile devices, wasn't a huge shock. The former Apple executive is in the process of trying to reestablish Palm as a major player, standing on its own.

It's a blow for Microsoft, but the company can surely empathize with Palm's situation. Microsoft's search team made a similar move several years ago when it exited licensing deals with Yahoo and struck out on its own with a search engine that ultimately became -- after many reincarnations -- Microsoft Bing. (Ironically, of course, Microsoft is now turning the tables and licensing its search technology to Yahoo.)

In fact, one of the boilerplate sentences used by Palm in its regulatory filings echoes one of Microsoft's biggest reasons for cutting Yahoo's Inktomi and Overture. Licensed operating systems such as Windows Mobile "do not provide us with the same benefits as a proprietary OS, such as Palm webOS, in terms of control and opportunity to differentiate," the company says.

Rubinstein didn't refer specifically to Windows Mobile when he announced the plan to focus exclusively on webOS in a conference call with analysts yesterday.

"The versatility of Palm Web OS for both business and personal use is just one of the reasons it sits at the center of our growing family of products and is the cornerstone of Palm's future," he said. "Given the importance of Web OS to our overall strategy, we’ve made the decision to dedicate all future development resources to the evolution of Web OS, which means that going forward, our roadmap will include only Palm Web OS based devices."

Rubinstein didn't mention that Palm will also be able to avoid Windows Mobile licensing fees by dumping the Microsoft operating system, but that surely played into the decision. Palm has also noted in regulatory filings that using Windows Mobile translated into a higher average OS cost per unit than using the Palm OS from its former sister company. By focusing on webOS, Palm gets to avoid licensing fees from both.