Moneybox

The latest sign that the PC business has entered a generalized phase of decline comes from Hewlett Packard's latest quarterly earnings report in which they say revenues fell 7 percent "and down 8% when adjusted for the effects of currency."

The internals cast an even more negative light on the PC sector. They show 30 percent growth in HP's software division, 15 percent growth in HP Financial Services, and 1 percent growth in services. Those healthy units mask a disaster elsewhere as "Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue declined 15% year over year with a 5.2% operating margin" and "Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) revenue declined 7% year over year with a 12.2% operating margin." All of which is to say that there's plenty of money to be made in the neighborhood of what HP does, but the basic business of building and selling computers and peripherals isn't what it once was.