Hewlett-Packard’s earnings report came out yesterday, with the company reporting a net income of $2.6 billion, or $1.17 a share for its first quarter ending January 2011. The earnings report reveals better figures than last year, which were $2.3 billion, or 93 cents a share. HP has earned total revenue of $32.3 billion while earlier quarter earned $31.2 billion.

HP has seen profitable results from almost every continent. Starting with America, revenue is up 6 percent and 7 percent high in Asia Pacific, without currency adjustments. After necessary adjustments, it’s 5 percent up in America, 4 percent in Europe and 2 percent in Asia Pacific. In total, profits for this quarter are up 16 percent. HP also expects similar growth pattern for next fiscal quarter too, with earnings in the range of 99 cents to $1.01 a share.

“I’m pleased with our EPS and margin expansion during the quarter. Going forward, we have the opportunity to further capitalize on our customers’ demands for higher value-added solutions,” said Léo Apotheker, HP president and chief executive officer. “HP has a powerful portfolio, including exciting, recently announced cloud and connectivity offerings. We are focused on leveraging these strengths to extend our leadership and accelerate growth.”

HP was already expecting good figures due to its high performing sectors and upcoming wireless tablet. The credit for this development also goes to Apotheker’s plans for company’s growth and innovation. Ever since he joined as CEO, the company is focusing on expanding its footsteps in the software market.

Moving on to next update, HP has also announced its Intel-based business laptops with specialized features for easy replacement of components. These new EliteBook and Probook laptops will come with Intel’s latest Core i3, i5 and i7 ship in around March.

“The laptops feature one panel at the bottom that can be easily removed to replace the fan, hard drive, memory and networking modules. For an IT manager that’s got hundreds of notebooks, they want to upgrade the memory, add a wireless WAN card, swap out the hard drive, it just gives them easy access to get in there. It’s very ,very simple,” Sarah Bussell, manager for HP’s business notebook product marketing.

In most laptops, it’s quite difficult to upgrade memory without removing the keyboard; these new laptops will make it easier.  Additionally, these have been designed to be rugged as top-of-the-line EliteBook laptops now include an additional layer of protection around the screen. These laptops also come with an upgraded version of QuickWeb that allows users to start them within a few seconds. Different models are coming in these laptops including the 14-inch 8460p, 15.6-inch 8560p, 13.3-inch 6360b, 14-inch 6460b and 15.6-inch 6560b. There are four budget laptops coming in 13.-inch to 17.3-inch sizes.  Let’s hope to see them soon!