Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) will be reporting its second quarter results Tuesday afternoon. Will the world's largest computer manufacturer show strength in PC sales and market share gain in the laptop PC segment? We'll soon see.Corporate spending on IT equipment has remained soft in 2009, something that will possibly hamper HP's results. Although, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) saw a profit uptick in its latest quarterly report while revenue fell, and HP continues selling the bulk of the world's laptop PCs to this day.
The difference between IBM and HP is HP's exposure to the consumer market. Both IBM and HP have healthy corporate business, but HP's massive hardware sales into the consumer sector could hurt it for the latest quarter. In fact, PCs account for roughly 33% of HP's revenue -- and PCs (netbooks aside) just are not flying off the shelves so far this year.
What will be interesting regardless of whether HP hits an expected $0.86 EPS Q2 target will be the burgeoning "one-stop shop" competitive environment that both HP and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) are bringing into the fold to dethrone IBM from the total solutions provider crown it currently is struggling to maintain.
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