According to its latest figures, Hewlett Packard has managed to best its own estimates for the first quarter of this year, with profits rising an impressive 25%.

Still seems strange to see HP at the top of the heap, fair play

Word comes from Cnet of the announcement, which saw the company manage to achieve a net revenue of $31.2 billion and putting earnings at $2.32 billion. While the increase in revenue amounts to a fairly impressive 8%, the earnings increase manages to swell to a far more noteworth 25%. Certainly, given the current financial climate, HP will be happy to not only have sustained growth, but to have grown profit by such a large magnitude.

HP’s impressive figures come shortly after reports indicated that it had become the single biggest manufacturer of pre-built systems on earth, edging out stern competition from Acer, which passed out Dell late last year to take second place. It’s already been said that Acer could very well push HP into the number two spot by the end of the year, though these figures would seem to run counter to that.

That said, the increase in revenue may not necessarily indicate any growth in the PC market for HP; indeed, the folks at Cnet are quick to point out that the increase in HP’s revenue over the course of this quarter was largely due to printers, rather than PC sales.

That being the case, it’s entirely possible that, despite some very impressive numbers being posted, HP could well slip to second place if Acer can manage to sustain similar growth over the course of this year as it’s managed until now.