Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) has reported Q3 earnings and the company is about to have a live conference call here in a bit, at 5 p.m. EST. The consensus estimates have stated some pretty lofty goals for the world's largest tech company to hit. Right now, Wall Street has stapled a $0.65 EPS figure on CEO Mark Hurd's forehead, which represents a 20% YoY gain for the PC and printer manufacturer and marketer. Can it hit this looming and large target Thursday? Find out here in a few minutes.

Revenues were expected to be in the range of $23.9 billion to $24.2 billion for the quarter. If HP keeps inline with the growth that many industry pundits expect, it will crack the $100 billion in sales per fiscal year barrier very soon. With all the internal activity HP has generated in the last year (like the Mercury Interactive acquisition), year-ago quarter comps are a little tricky (if even possible), but one thing is clear: HP is doing way more right things under CEO Hurd than wrong things.

In fact, every time I hear Hurd speak on quarterly conference calls, the man seems to have the perfect blend of financial, operational and sales savvy that a $100 billion CEO should have. He exudes cool confidence and you can tell he has all his plays under his jacket at all times, though he does not reveal most of them. I'm quite of the belief that he is the right person to lead HP, and from recent quarterly financial results and guidance, I stand by that opinion. We'll see if Hurd is further vindicated below. With that, let's begin. Remember to use the "Refresh" key on your web browser to refresh this post every few minutes. All times below are in EST.

With the announcement of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL)'s new colorful laptops and the re-branding of some of its desktops, the computer maker is attempting to re-ignite excitement in its dull product lineup at the exact right time it needs to. I'm quite sure that Michael Dell's recent executive hires were given marching orders to get things underway as soon as possible, and here we are at the start of those results. I've referenced Dell's new strategy a few times in the last couple of days, but what's new here is what could be perceived as Dell's initial attempt to take on the "style and substance" market that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is famous for.

Dell's newer XPS laptops, as noted by Rob Enderle here, are more reminiscent of Apple MacBooks and upper-crust Sony laptop computer systems than kludgy and boring Dell laptop systems. This is a good thing, as even Apple does not have color options in its laptop selections right now -- it's either white or black. Same for Sony's venerable Vaio line, which has great design but few options for specific color personalization. What Dell has going for it is the mainstay of its business model for nearly two decades: selling direct to the customer. If Dell can sell many different options in terms of colors, materials and looks for its laptops direct to the customer and not attack retail (where inventory turns on custom products are really hard to predict), Dell may have a chance to become much more relevant that it has been in the last five years.

So, Dell may be starting, just this week, with a specific, multi-pronged approach: starting a small retail experiment with the world's largest retailer (as of June 10th) while simultaneously trying to court the "Apple-type" customer who may choose to opt for those new colors, aluminum plates and svelte lines in a laptop. The key difference here is availability: Apple's laptops, like the MacBook and MacBook Pro, are sold online and in stores and in Apple's retail stores (and other retailers). Apple's gems are also only available in white or black. By contrast, Dell's new XPS laptop systems are, for now, only available from the company's website (consumer direct sales), and will come in many more colors than just white or black. Will customers bite at these new Dell systems? Hard to say this week, but I'll be paying close attention.

To those who say "the PC is dead" (umm, not really), to the commodity experts who treat the personal computer market like the FCOJ or pork bellies market, where is the next decade of PC growth going to come from?

I would venture to guess, based on industry estimates, that the majority of U.S. households these days have more than one PC. For Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), Lenovo, Acer and other PC makers, it's pretty well-known by now that a vast market remains untapped in areas outside the U.S.

To that end, it's been said that up to 40% of small businesses in India are expected to start investing in PC technology in the next twelve months. The trick here is that for most of these businesses, this will be the first time ever they invest in the personal computer and related markets. That's right, it's 2007 and almost half of the small business market in India is expected to engage themselves in PC technology for the first time ever.

Will this send sales execs from HP and Dell into the stratosphere? Probably not, as these individuals know their markets, customers and potential sales powder kegs just as well as anyone. For internet companies like Google and Yahoo!, opening up the possible internet-connected floodgates of India (which has a billion+ population) would be a good thing as well. PCs this day and age without an internet connection are useless for any kind of global business transactions. Yes, these smaller businesses in India may not be there yet, but in a decade, many of them will be global businesses. PC technology will help them all launch, and PC makers will be the ones seeing visions of sugar plums dancing in their own heads as those global sales continue to mount.