Hewlett-Packard is on an upswing and a downhill ride. Being the largest computer manufacturer in the world, a lot is expected from them. And setbacks, in the eyes of outsiders, are nearly impossible. But, the giant has landed into the realm of financial woes.  HP hits a 52-week low at the stock market this week. This predicament may worsen as US Stock Market fell to the pits and is presently experiencing the longest slump since 2002.

From the lows to the highs, the Leo Apotheker-led company will rollout TouchPad on July 1^st in the United States and consequent releases in Canada and parts of Europe. This tablet is dubbed by HP as an “iPad-killer”, with an iPad-like price range to boot. The Palo Alto-based corporation also bagged a US Air Force Deal, making big gains in the government sector, always a win for HP as it seeks new ways to extend its printer business. Under the clause of the agreement with the government, HP will provide regular and malfunction printers to the army.

The company has also realized that cloud is becoming a differentiator for the tech community. Consequently, HP made several announcements and updates on their cloud-centric products and services during HP Discover this week. Under Apotheker’s flagship, the organization is pushing for software and big cloud investments. They have recently expanded their cloud computing strategy and cashing out $2 billion to support the initiatives, particularly for the hybrid cloud. One of the agendas tackled at HP Discover is making the cloud simple and accessible to customers.  Their leaders also touched base with enterprise cloud solutions, cloud adoption, HP’s public cloud, open cloud marketspace, cloud caveats, state of the CIO and HP CloudMaps. “It is about cloud or die…”, according to Patrick Harr, HP Global VP of Enterprise Cloud Solutions.

Despite some slips, HP has proven why they are one of the pillars of the present and future of IT. They continuously develop their array of products and services to keep up with the accelerating industry.