Plans for the future of Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HP) were confirmed after several rumors appeared recently. The World number one manufacturer of PCs will stop making them. Besides desktops and laptops, HP will drop the production of tablets and mobile phones running WebOS. What caused such a 180 degree change of strategy of a company like HP?

Behind this decision is Leo Apotheker, the new CEO. He argued that the current business of manufacturing PCs does not provide long-term growth prospects and HP must go back to software-based services where it started.

The decision is even more shocking if we think about the acquiring of rival Compaq by HP not too long ago, and last year it paid $1.2 billion for Palm, the company from which it took over the Palm Pre mobile phones. It seems that the U.S. retailer Best Buy would have 200,000 TouchPad tablets with WebOS in stock and would hardly know what to do with them now, after the HP announcement.

What will HP do in the future? It seems that many companies are very interested in what HP manufacturer will you leave behind. The new CEO wants to transform Hewlett-Packard into a service-based company, targeting primarily the business consumer and not the average user. It seems that this is the sector with a very large increase in IT and, therefore, a good profit. HP’s transformation process will be slow and we have to see what will be the first formal step.