HP makes major play for the cloud

Four-months into the job and HP’s CEO Léo Apotheker has revealed his strategy for the evolution (rather than revolution) of HP.

Speaking to investors in the US, Apotheker said that he wants to take HP’s software business and expand it out into the cloud.

The New York Times says that Wall Street analysts have raised concerns about HP’s direction and loss of momentum as industry growth shifted away from hardware and PC.

After reporting lower-than-expected sales growth for the last quarter of 2010, Apotheker said HP was aiming to boost earnings and increase dividends with the new offerings.

The move into the online services space is seen as an attempt by HP to catch up with the likes of Apple, IBM, Amazon and SalesForce.

Apotheker also announced that the recently unveiled TouchPad would be launched in June.