Despite the cautious outlook, Hurd sounded more confident on the call than the heads of some other big tech companies, notably Intel, Dell and SAP, which have all discussed a sharp slowdown in customer spending.

"I'm confident in HP's ability to gain share, expand earnings and emerge from the current environment in a meaningfully stronger competitive position," Hurd said.

"We believe that we held or gained share in every segment" during the quarter, he added.

This was HP's first earnings report since completing its acquisition of services giant EDS in August. Hurd said the integration of the companies is on track or ahead of the plan it outlined in September.

As part of its cost-cutting efforts, HP has been reducing its research and development expenses for the past several quarters, from $914 million in the fourth quarter last year to $842 million in the quarter just ended.