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Hewlett-Packard's new CEO said he is looking forward to jumping underneath the hood at the computer and printer maker and getting his hands dirty.

Mark Hurd, who was named to the post Tuesday, is being characterized as a blue-collar CEO, more interested in rolling up his sleeves to solve problems than appearing in front of cameras, something his predecessor Carly Fiorina was often accused of.

"I believe in an execution-oriented culture. I believe in setting clear goals, implementing tactical plans and holding people accountable," Hurd said during a conference call with analysts and press.

Before arriving in Silicon Valley late last night, Hurd said he read as much as he could about the company, including "The HP Way," and is looking forward to meeting with HP senior executives to discuss ways of making the company more competitive against Dell and IBM.

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HP's Handheld Position

Although HP has long been the number two PDA vendor, it is hot on the heels of top dog palmOne.

PalmOne held the top spot for 2004 in an IDC report from February with a 39.6 percent market share, though it shipped 11.1 percent fewer units in 2004 than it did in 2003.

HP upped its market share to 27.1 percent last year with a growth in shipments of 9 percent (206,487 units) over the previous year. The company also recorded a sequential Q304 to Q404 gain of 25 percent, which gave it a 27.1 percent market share for the last quarter of the year to palmOne’s 42 percent tally.

Dell holds the number three spot with a distant 7.6 percent overall market share in 2004.

At about the same time IDC released its report, HP announced its 2005 mobility strategy, which includes a renewed push in the cellular-wireless handheld space after a bit of a stumble with its first smartphone, the iPAQ h6315. The first model in this onslaught could appear as soon as next month. It is called the iPAQ hw6500 (also known as the iPAQ Mobile Messenger).

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