King agreed, however, that PC manufacturing is a tough business.

HP's PC unit delivers lower overall operating profits, on a percentage basis, compared to its higher-margin business IT solutions and services. PC sales also tend to be more volatile than business IT, with sales that are particularly sensitive to seasonal buying trends and economic hiccups.

In that vein, King said getting rid of the PC business could ultimately be a smart move for the company.

"The future for HP is more enterprise hardware, more software and more services -- in other words, a business more like IBM," he noted. "In that version of things, PCs, at least the consumer side of the business, are mostly extraneous, so if this happens, it could be very good for the company."

Q2 PC shipments