The chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett Packard Co. on Wednesday talked about the most difficult question his firm faced in deciding its future -- whether to keep the hard-copy unit with the computing unit.

Lewis E. Platt held a news conference in Tokyo to explain the thinking behind the firm's decision -- announced last month -- to split into a computer/imaging firm and an electronic measurement firm in the first half of next year.

Platt, who will leave Japan on Friday, said Hewlett Packard had studied several options in hammering out a business realignment plan, including dividing into two, three or four separate companies, each focusing on a specialized area. "It is very clear that in the business world we live in today, focus wins," Platt said.

But the firm decided to keep its hard-copy business with the computer unit because it believes hard copy will "play a very significant role in the Internet," and the hard-copy business will give Hewlett Packard comparative advantages over competitors. "That was the most difficult decision, and that's why we did it," he said.

Hewlett Packard now plans to split into a computing and imaging firm with sales of $39 billion and 78,000 workers, and a measurement firm with sales of $8 billion and 45,000 workers.

The California-based company is currently the world's No. 2 computer seller. Asked by a reporter about future prices of personal computers, Platt said they may continue to decline. "Some people even talk about 'free PCs,'" he said, pointing out that some Internet service providers now offer a PC free in return for signing up for their service.