Hewlett-Packard’s PC business is not set to disappear, with the company looking to either sell the $40 billion business, turn it into a separate company or to resume business as usual by the end of this year.
Marketing head of HP’s Personal Systems Group (PSG), Darren Needham-Walker, today pushed the point that the industry-leading PC company will not pull out of the consumer market.
The move follows a global effort on HP’s side to reassure channel partners and media alike that its PC business is still running ‘business as usual,’ with similar announcements being made in Thailand and the UK over the last two days.
In a bid to clarify the mid-August announcement that HP would back out of the consumer business, Needham-Walker has stressed that HP is still running with its consumer division and investing in the WebOS platform.
Company executives are set to decide on whether to sell the PSG division, separate it into a new company or to keep the business running as it already is, but Needham-Walker says that the consumer products will keep selling in any case.
He stated that if the consumer wing were to be separated into its own company, it would be the top Windows-based PC company with a third of all Windows PCs under its belt, with around $40 billion revenue.
His statements come as the company today previewed a new range of all-in-one PCs aimed at consumers, set to be available within the coming week.
He added that the WebOS platform is far from dead and that ongoing investment is being poured into its development.
When Palm was acquired by HP, it was solely for the WebOS operating system, and not much investment was put into the physical implementation side of the business when the TouchPad was developed, he explained. The company has gone back to the drawing board, with licensing of the WebOS software to other hardware developers a potential option on the horizon.
As for a potential selling off of HP’s PC division, chipmaker Intel, which holds the biggest portion of chips in the PC market, said it would not bid for HP’s PC business if it went up for sale.
“As far as us being a candidate – no thanks. We like where we are in the ecosystem. We’re a silicon maker. As for competing with our customers, I don’t see us going there,” said Intel chief Paul Otellini at the Intel Developer Conference in San Francisco.
