Though the technology market has, of late, been fairly upbeat about the early signs of recovery, the third-quarter results of the world's biggest technology company, Hewlett-Packard (HP), proved to be quite a dampener!

Hit hard by the still-persisting weakness in sales of personal computers and printer ink, HP has posted a 19 percent drop in its profits for the third quarter - with its earnings being $1.64 billion, or 67 cents a share, as against the same quarter last year's earnings figure of $2.03 billion, or 80 cents a share.

The Palo Alto, California-based HP reported a 2 percent fall in unit sales, to $27.45 billion; with its PC sales falling 18 percent. The company's revenue from printing supplies also fell 13 percent, as its key money-making product - printer ink - faced competition from cheaper brands.

While the recession-hit PC business has forced market leader HP to diversify into other areas - like technology services and computer networking -, its core PC selling still accounts for at least on-third of its revenue. However, the biggest revenue and profit generators for HP at present are services, with the combined HP-EDS contributing $8.47 billion revenue in the latest quarter!

As regards the purported recovery, HP CEO Mark Hurd said he would not yet call an 'upturn', even though he anticipated that 2010 would be 'better for all'!