King believes that HP made the right decision to stay intact; other analysts agree.

Frank Gillett, an analyst at Forrester, said that HP doesn't want to get out of the client business "just as that whole world is becoming unhinged and lending itself to innovation again."

Gillett cites the coming transition to Windows 8 and the continuing evolution of tablets as good reasons to stay in the personal systems business. He also pointed to the growing smartphone market and the increasing use of personal computing devices in the workplace.

"Why make yourself a clone of IBM by following the path they tread?" said Gillett.

Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, said the Personal Systems Group decision announced Thursday makes Whitman look good. "The spinoff of the PC division made no strategic sense for HP, there were simply too many dependencies both ways and it would have crippled large customer loyalty, which is already stressed as a result of the ," said Enderle