Tech giant Hewlett-Packard experienced a 3.1 % slide in shares,  after announcing Leo Apotheker as its new CEO to replace Mark Hurd. Apotheker is the ex-CEO of SAP AG, a German business software maker. He lost his job earlier this year.

Many analysts expected HP to hire someone from within, or tap an executive with stronger qualifications to offer. Instead, they hired Apotheker, describing his short-lived CEO position prior to the hiring of HP as an offer of “the driver’s seat when the car already had crashed through the guard rail and was in the chasm,” says Cowen & Co. software analyst Goldmacher. However, Apotheker as new CEO, HP must be more focused on boosting their software business more than anything else.

“Overall, we like these appointments and believe they help bring software expertise to HP,” according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu in a note to investors Friday. “Arguably, software is one of the weaker areas of the company at only 3 (percent) of revenue.”

The stock drop isn’t likely to deter HP moving forward, as the company sees a strong future in the coming year.  Looking to its product lines, HP has projected revenues higher than analysits’ expectations.   Nevertheless, HP and even John Furrier remain hopeful about HP’s challenges and opportunities ahead.