Aug 20, 2011 10:29 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has never indicated even the faintest possibility of losing faith in the PC ecosystem, and the company is not budging even after the no.1 PC OEM worldwide, HP, announced that it’s considering alternatives for its Personal Systems Group. PSG sold the largest volume of consumer and commercial PCs the past fiscal year, the vast majority of which of them preinstalled with Windows, generating revenue of $14 billion in FY2010.

HP said that it is looking to spin-off its PC business, either fully or at least partially, but it’s ready to explore additional alternatives, such as selling the group altogether.

The OEM giant has yet to settle on a specific strategy for PSG, but just the announcement caused the company’s shares to plunge by over 20% to as low as $23.6, reducing HP’s market cap by $12 billion.

Whether Microsoft likes it or not, the repercussions created by the evolution of HP’s PC business will also impact Windows, since the two are intimately connected. The lion’s share of Windows Division’s revenue comes from copies of the platform preinstalled on new OEM machines.

There’s no telling the extent to which Windows will be affected, but just as it’s not losing faith in the PC ecosystem, Microsoft remains committed to its long-time partner.

I sent a few questions over to one of my contacts with the software giant yesterday related to HP’s announcement, and a Microsoft spokesperson had this to say: “The PC ecosystem is strong and constantly evolving to address customer and market needs. That said, HP and Microsoft remain strategic partners and will continue bringing solutions to customers across many areas of our business.”

Whatever happens to PSG, the computers that group produces and will produce, will still need an operating system, and I don’t doubt event for a second the fact that this OS will continue to be Windows.

After all, PSG will survive even separated from HP either as a spin-off or through a transaction, and its PC heart is bound to continue to beat.

“We believe exploring alternatives for PSG could enhance its performance, allow it to more effectively compete and provide greater value for HP shareholders,” said Léo Apotheker, HP president and chief executive officer earlier this week.

“PSG is a world-class scale business with a leading market share position and a highly effective supply chain and broad reach and go-to-market capabilities. We believe there are alternatives that could afford PSG more autonomy and flexibility to make strategic investment decisions to better position the business for its customers, partners and employees.”

Without PSG, HP will be able to better embrace cloud, solutions and software, according to the OEM, which is refocusing on enterprise, commercial and governmental customers.

Microsoft will also have an important role to play as HP evolves, and Windows will still be a part of their collaboration, just not the client, but rather technologies such as Windows Azure, Windows Server, virtualization and productivity offerings, etc.