Another misfortune may also be helping HP. The problems at Satyam, the IT services company whose founder and other leading executives resigned recently after admitting to inflating profits, have perhaps created some more interest in HP's service offerings, Hurd said.

Revenue from HP's Personal Systems Group, which includes computers, declined 19 percent compared to the previous year to $8.8 billion. Unit shipments were down 4 percent. Desktop revenue plummeted 25 percent while notebook revenue declined 13 percent.

Its Enterprise Storage and Servers group reported revenue down 18 percent to $3.9 billion compared to the same period a year earlier.

Some companies may have bought a lower-level, less expensive server while in the past they would have bought a higher-end server, Hurd said. "People are trying to buy as little as they can buy in the context of getting what needs to get done," he said.

But companies also are putting off buying decisions, and that will probably create opportunities in the future, Hurd said. He hopes to position HP to take advantage of a potential future boom in pent-up buying.