HP was the largest PC manufacturer (by volume), and a household name for time immemorial. Sure, there are plenty of other manufacturers out there, ready to sell you a desktop or a laptop. And while they certainly offer excellent products, the names Acer and Toshiba aren't necessarily the first that'll come to mind for the average consumer. Will these players to step in and fill the void for consumers looking for a Windows machine? Or is Dell out stocking up on champagne?

Spinning off their still-profitable PC business will help the company "focus on enterprise and SMB [small and medium-size business] segments where we can best leverage our value-add." That's a fair approximation of HP CEO Leo Apotheker's statement during , in response to why HP is considering ditching the PC business. Only that quote comes from IBM CFO Mark Loughridge from a , when IBM announced they were leaving the PC business for the greener pastures of Enterprise support and software development.

That deal proved to work out in the long run for both IBM -- who has gone on to make strides in supercomputing and AI development -- and Lenovo, who has since become an international player in the PC market. If HP does sell off their Personal Systems Group, will their future be as bright?