"If you want to be in the cloud business, it has to be large-scale," Apotheker said. "You have to be able to serve customers everywhere."

But it's unclear whether HP can attract software developers to its new platformand excite consumers and developers in the same way as competitors such as Google and Amazon.

Investors have been looking for some reassurance since Apotheker took over from Hurd nearly five months ago. HP's stock [HPQ] hasn't done well since Hurd's departure -- it's underperformed on the Standard & Poor's 500 index by about 17 percent -- and financial analysts wonder if Apotheker has what it takes to lead the company forward.