Its new offering: arms for flat-panel PC monitors.

FORBES: The Chair Men

Yang said Proview started producing a device called Internet Personal Access Device in 2000 that looks like a small ordinary PC and uses touch-panel technology.

FORBES: China Tech Co Prepares Major Lawsuit Against Apple

While it's easy to see how TouchPad and smartphone sales would symbiotically attract developers, it's less clear how much apps for those products would have in common with, say, those on a printer front panel or on a layer living on top of Windows on a PC -- two possibilities that HP has raised for device markets where it is particularly strong.

ENGADGET: Switched On: webOS wherever

Despite traditionally weak seasonality, continued economic stagnation in Europe, and the prolonged supply shortage in the PC industry, the Display Panel Business was able to improve profitability by expanding sales of high-end premium panels such as LED TV and 3D panels, which pushed TV panel sales up in the mid-20 percent range on-year.

ENGADGET: Samsung's Q1 2012 profits nearly double year-over-year on higher margins for TVs and phones