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Alexkid

HP to end mobile products, may sell PC division
JORDAN ROBERTSON
(The Associated Press)



07:54:22PM (DST) Thursday,August 18,2011.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In a dramatic reshuffling, Hewlett-Packard Co. said Thursday that it will discontinue its tablet computer and smartphone products and may sell or spin off its PC division, bowing out of the consumer businesses.

It's one of the most extreme makeovers in the company's 72-year history and signals new CEO Leo Apotheker's most transparent move to date to make HP look more like longtime rival IBM Corp., which now makes most of its money from software and services.

The most apparent result for consumers will be the end of HP's TouchPad tablet, a sales dud, and HP-branded smartphones, also-rans in a booming market crowded with the iPhone and devices based on Google's Android system. By the end of next year, HP computers could be sold under another company's name.

HP will continue to sell servers and other equipment to business customers, just as IBM now does.

It was not immediately known whether any jobs will be cut. HP employs more than 300,000 worldwide.

A decade ago, HP emerged from a bitter fight to spend more than $24 billion on Compaq Computer, setting the stage for HP to become the world's No. 1 maker of personal computers. Now, three CEOs later, HP is changing course — hard.

The PC division is HP's biggest revenue generator but least profitable division. The move has long been rumored, but just six months ago HP dismissed reports of the possibility as "irresponsible reporting" and that PCs are "core to HP's strategy for the connected world."

The PC industry is under pressure from hot-selling smartphones and tablet computers, which have contributed to already weak consumer demand for PCs in the U.S. and Europe.

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I really hope HP will stick by it's PC division for a while longer...

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