The recently divergent fortunes of the world's two largest computer makers appeared to be set starkly side by side last night.

While Hewlett-Packard, the market leader, was unveiling a 30 per cent jump in third quarter profits, to $1.8 billion, Dell, the No 2, said that it would restate results for the past four years, in a move that will knock up to $150 million off net income after "senior executives" massaged figures to ensure that quarterly targets would be hit.

Under Mark Hurd, the Hewlett-Packard chief executive since 2005, the companies’ market capitalisation has doubled, to about $120 billion.

Last nigh Mr Hurd said that the quarter’s growth was the best seen at Hewlett-Packard since the go-go days of 2000 and the dot-com boom.

The numbers underlined some of the emergent themes of his tenure: operating expenses neatly managed, margins up.

On the conference call, however, he was at pains to suggest one thing: that Hewlett-Packard was “just getting started”.

That message will not be welcomed at Dell’s headquarters in Texas, but the company is also ripe for a renaissance.

Michael Dell, the eponymous founder, is back in the driving seat and Dell has looked better for it – the shares are up about 25 per cent since his return as chief executive in February.

It can now also draw a line under an unwelcome accounting probe and concentrate on selling PCs, servers and – in a growing market for both it and Hewlett-Packard – services.

Hewlett-Packard has won the recent battles, but the war goes on.

With Lenovo, the world’s No.3, eyeing Packard Bell for a possible acquisition that would radically ramp up the Chinese group’s presence in Europe, nobody among the top-tier of PC makers can afford to rest on their laurels.

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