14 DAY TRIAL // HP is still the greatest PC maker, in addition to the major supplier of enterprise products, but this is becoming a liability if the third quarter financial results are anything to go by.
As people are eagerly buying tablets and other consumer electronics, they aren't as invested in PCs, for a number of reasons.
Market saturation is one factor, while the other is that two- and three-year-old systems can play games and run most programs of today just fine, except, maybe, those with DirectX 11 graphics.
At any rate, the PC market has been dragging its feet, and so has the printer segment.
Due to these factors and to restructuring costs of $8.8 billion (7 billion Euro), HP failed to increase its profit in the third quarter of its fiscal year 2012, which ended on July 31.
"HP is still in the early stages of a multi-year turnaround, and we're making decent progress despite the headwinds," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer.
"During the quarter we took important steps to focus on strategic priorities, manage costs, drive needed organizational change, and improve the balance sheet. We continue to deliver on what we say we will do."
Total revenue was of $29.7 billion (23.6 billion Euro), 5% below the sum accumulated in the same period of the previous year (2011) and $1 billion less than in Q2 FY12.
Total desktop unit shipments slid down 6%, notebooks dropped 12 percent and printers by 3%.
What HP does on the tablet market, and Windows RT on ARM in particular, is bound to influence the corporation's upcoming months.
Last we heard, it won't be part of the first group of Windows RT brands, but we also know that HP has every intention to maintain a strong presence on the slate segment as a whole. We'll wait and see what happens next.