HP Makes Another Phone Call

Hewlett-Packard is entering the consumer mobile-handset market, again.

HP’s last two smartphone efforts flopped, first with its “iPaq” devices and more recently with phones made by Palm, the handset maker it acquired in 2010.

Now CEO Meg Whitman is taking another stab at the crowded mobile-phone industry as she tries to turn around the company. She is searching for new areas of growth amid declines in desktop and laptop computer sales, which make up HP’s largest business unit.