HP unveils mobile menagerie

Hewlett-Packard wants more businesspeople to travel with its computers.

The computer giant on Wednesday unveiled 10 new mobile PCs, including its first convertible tablet PC, a notebook whose screen rotates 180 degrees and folds flat to create a writing surface. The company also announced alliances with Good Technology and Nokia, and said it plans to deliver a smart phone later this year.

HP says it's using the new products and alliances to better adapt mobile technology to the business world.

"This is really all coming together so that technology can enhance the way we live, work and interact," Ted Clark, HP's general manager of mobile computing, said during a Webcast of the event held in San Jose, Calif.

Notebooks have become increasingly popular among businesses in the past few years, thanks to factors such as wireless networks. Executives who once toted them on trips also now take them down the hall to meetings. The same executives also seek more capable phones, so HP will deliver a new HP-brand smart phone, a device that merges a cellular handset and a traditional handheld organizer, later in the year as well, Clark said.

HP, which recently merged its imaging and printing group with its personal-systems groups to put its cameras, printers and PCs under one roof, is also aiming to use mobility to beef up sales. It seeks to return to the top rank in worldwide notebook shipments, Clark said, while maintaining its momentum in handhelds.

But HP will have its work cut out for it when taking on the likes of Dell and IBM. Dell, the top PC maker and HP's chief rival of late, also updated its business notebook line this week.

IBM's ThinkPad remains a strong brand among businesses as well, though HP is eyeing IBM's customers following Big Blue's December announcement of plans to sell its PC business to Lenovo Group.

"The IBM-Lenovo announcement is a great opportunity for HP," Clark said.

HP's new business notebooks range from the nc4200, which weighs less than 4 pounds, to the convertible