The difference here is that HP is on top of the PC manufacturing heap. IBM was not.

Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, said IBM may have offered HP a good example to follow.

"IBM has been incredibly successful after the PC company sale and, more recently, Lenovo has been the fastest-growing PC company," he added. "That example alone likely would justify this move."

But Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT, Inc., said the HP move caught him off-guard -- especially, given the company's position in the market.

"I'm surprised mostly by the audacity of the move," said King. "PCs -- and dominating the PC market -- after all, were critical points in HP's 2001 Compaq acquisition. The company's Personal Systems Group also generates more revenue than any other HP business unit. That's nearly one-third of HP's overall revenue. Even spun-off, it'd be a formidable company."