Growth will be Hewlett Packard's (HP) core vision over the next two years and the company's new business plan includes the upcoming release of a Windows 8-powered tablet computer later this year and the phased separation of thousands of workers.

HP's new approach was unveiled Thursday as the world's biggest PC maker reported dipping revenues and profits on its latest quarterly results, which analysts noted were numbers that actually exceeded market's modest expectations.

As per its quarterly figures, HP said that it suffered a net income retreat of 31 percent in Q2, pocketing only $US1.59 billion in the period as compared to the $US2.3 billion it earned in the corresponding quarter last year.

The same goes with the company's revenue, which plunged a bit by three percent en route to a respectable $US30.69 billion, considering the faltering sales of computer hardwares the world over in the past years.

HP, analysts said, was caught in the tech warp zone where consumers no longer regard desktops, notebooks, printers and scanners - products that used to deliver billions to HP's coffers - as everyday necessities.

The shift was largely caused by the huge popularity of mobile computing and wireless connectivity, in which images that people need to share need not to be printed - posting them on Facebook and Twitter or sharing the pics via Bluetooth will finish the task.

Unfortunately for HP and a host of other tech companies, they were looking the other way when Apple, Google and other firms, which presently make a killing on smartphones and tablet that run either on iOS or Android, were gearing up to capitalise on the now lucrative mobile computing segment.

Brushing aside the misses it encountered in the past years, some analysts contend that HP indeed may be gradually waking up and new company CEO Meg Whitman appears bent to sustain whatever gains the company has achieved in the past few quarters by plotting measures that will save the company some $US3.5 billion in each year that will come to pass.

Amidst the planned job cuts and austerity plans that will be rolled out shortly and should be completed by fiscal 2014, Ms Whitman said on today's conference call that HP's prospect, both near-term and long-term, looks promising enough, a positive outlook that quickly rubbed on investors as Reuters reported that HP shares soared by 11 percent in the immediate hours after the release of its financial report.

However, Ms Whitman clarified that "while I wouldn't say we have turned the corner, we are making real progress."

And progress, according to Ms Whitman, means HP will reconsolidate its business strategies and focus on three things: the emerging cloud computing, computer security and online software offerings.

"Our goal is simple: a better outcome for the customers at reduced cost for HP," the company chief was quoted by The Associated Press (AP) as saying on Thursday.

Sadly though, HP's new business blueprint must integrate the painful axing of some 27,000 workers over the next two years, a small portion of the company's global workforce of more than 300,000.

"Work force reductions are never easy ... but they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company," Ms Whitman stressed.

On the positive side, HP will make a new thrust on the tablet computer competition following the disappointment that the company had encountered when it launched the TouchPad tablet last year, which ended up being sold at a bargain price just so HP could recoup the gadget's production cost.

This time around, HP is betting on the Windows 8, which Microsoft will unleash in the final quarter of the current year.

"We will have a Windows 8 tablet for the holiday," Ms Whitman confirmed in an interview with Reuters.

Specs for the planned product has yet to be disclosed by HP, which is expected to tussle it out with fresh tablet offerings from current leaders, Apple and Samsung, which are likely to refresh their flagship products in time for the shopping rush that normally occurs from October through January of the following year.