HP set for crunch decision on PC business before year's end

HP might yet retain its PC business, after new chief executive Meg Whitman revealed that a final decision will be made on whether to spin of the Personal Systems Group (PSG) by the end of the year at the latest.

The former eBay boss gave an update on the plans, which were unveiled in August by former chief executive Léo Apotheker, during a conference call to announce her appointment as president and chief executive.

"With regard to the potential spin off of PSG, we're committed to doing the work right now to determine the best path forward, and we expect the board to make a determination by the end of the calendar year if not sooner," she said.

"This decision is solely based on the value to investors and the value to customers."

Whitman added that she is "excited" about the prospect of acquiring UK-based tech success story Autonomy, and that HP will "continue to explore options to optimise the value of webOS software" under her leadership.

"We will continue to invest in our market-leading servers, storage, networking, printing, PCs, software and services offerings," she said.

Forrester analyst Pascal Matzke told V3 that Whitman should not consider steering HP back towards the PC market.

"HP's brand, even though it is very visible, is not strong, because they've missed the boat in terms of important trends such as consumerisation," he said. "

Ironically for HP, however, the company came second behind Apple in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index for PC brands, proving that it is still held in some regard by its customers.