What might have worked better is for HP to have acquired a company like Salesforce.com and installed its flamboyant and outspoken CEO, Marc Benioff, in the executive suite, Wang said.

"Would Marc have taken the job? That's a whole other story," he said. "But you need someone like that to go in and inspire people."

Apotheker was "a curious choice for HP from the get-go -- a case of hoping for wish fulfillment," said Forrester Research analyst China Martens via e-mail. "If you hire an enterprise software CEO, your company will ergo successfully become a much larger enterprise software player."

The whole situation has a sense of déjà vu as well, Martens said. "Like SAP a while back, HP is now going through rough patches, trying to redefine and overhaul its business and looking to Leo to lead that revamp, while at the same time dealing with some poor handling of its public message."

Anecdotal evidence suggests that discontent over Apotheker has become rampant among rank-and-file employees.