The HP team responsible for Enyo — webOS's HTML5-based application framework that debuted on the TouchPad — will be leaving the company and starting at Google shortly, The Verge has learned. What this means for the future of Open webOS is unclear; Enyo and the developers supporting it are central to HP's open source strategy for the operating system going forward, and it's hard to say whether this move will have any effect on the planned late 2012 release for version 1.0.

What the Enyo team will do at Google is unknown at this point, but there are several logical landing spots. Android would obviously be an option — regardless of its commercial success (or lack thereof), few would argue that webOS is an innovative platform that Android could learn from, and Android's design chief Matias Duarte had previously led Palm's efforts in the run-up to the Pre launch. Alternatively, the team could slot into the Chrome group — web apps factor prominently in the Chrome story, and Enyo would do well as part of a future Chrome Web Store developer framework.

More on this as it develops.

Update: Sources close to HP tell us that it won't be the entire Enyo team leaving, though Matt McNulty — the man in charge of the project — will be among the departing crew. We're also hearing that the team members leaving are "responsible for 99 percent of the code."

Update 2: We've now received an official statement from HP, which references the roadmap (with September release) announced back in January: