Right now is a great opportunities for companies like HP. While their company is riddled with issues of its own, at least they are not watching their customers balk in disgust with all of the reports rolling in of “battery horror stories”.

Hewlett-Packard is nipping at the heels of the world’s top personal computer maker, Dell.

The Palo Alto hardware giant reported solid third-quarter results Wednesday — including the best operating margins its PC business has posted in more than five years. It’s another sign that HP’s chief rival in computer sales, Dell, is losing its competitive edge, according to several financial analysts.

Dell warned last month that its aggressive price-cutting plan rolled out in May and June will cause the Round Rock, Texas-based company to miss its projections for quarterly results being reported today.

Meanwhile, HP boasted broad-based growth in the quarter ended July 31. Revenue and operating profit increased from the same quarter a year ago in all but one of its six businesses, from the printer group to the software group.

HP reported $21.9 billion in net revenue in the third quarter, up 5 percent from a year ago. It earned $1.4 billion in net income, or 48 cents a share, compared with an unusually low 3 cents per share a year ago that largely reflected a tax adjustment from repatriating $14.5 billion in cash from foreign earnings…. Source: mercurynews.com