HP UK boss: we never said we're quitting PC market

HP reveals its UK stance in PC market
HP - not quitting PCs, just thinking about it

The head of HP Personal Systems Groupin the UK, Paul Hunter, has released a statement regarding HP's recent revelation that it was considering pulling out of the PC market and has said that it is still business as usual for HP in the UK.

The statement calls into question some of the articles that have been written about CEO Leo Apotheker's new strategy for HP, which sees the business separated into two sections: software and hardware, with the hardware side put on the market for potential buyers.

While it's pretty clear that Apotheker is looking to offload the hardware side, Hunter is quick to mention that HP hasn't actually said it is quitting the PC business.

Not quitting... yet

"Let me be absolutely clear in saying that at no stage has HP said it is quitting the PC business," explained Apotheker.

"Three options are being investigated, and whether the company is spun off, sold or kept in the HP portfolio, the team in the UK remains committed to creating and supporting great products and services."

He is also keen to point out that if a sale were to happen, then customers would still be cared for.

"HP PSG UK is only going in one direction, forwards and that means customers can have confidence that existing HP products will be supported under the terms of their warranties as will any future purchases.

"Likewise, all webOS products will be supported and HP fully intends to support the future development of the webOS platform, though again how that will be managed is still under discussion."

WebOS support

Given that HP is still in the early stages with webOS it will be reassuring news to all that bought discounted HP TouchPads in the last few days that it still wants to support the OS.

Unfortunately it hasn't really explained how it will be doing this, other than: "I apologise that we have been slow to answer some of the questions around webOS.

"The sheer scale of interest in the discounted products took us a little by surprise. We are now working on ensuring everyone that owns a webOS device has a positive experience."

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.