NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Hewlett-Packard announced plans Monday to make its hand-held device business a stand-alone entity in order to give the division greater financial and operational control.

The company will separate its portable device business from its notebook computer operations to benefit from the growing market for hardware that allows consumers to make phone calls and check e-mail.

There will be a separate group of executives running each division.

Hewlett-Packard (up $0.23 to $31.74, Research) has appointed David Rothschild, a former executive at rival Sun Microsystems, to lead the hand-held business. He will report to Todd Bradley of the Personal Systems Group.

"The converged device market is growing at more than 60 percent a year," said Bradley. "This realignment positions the hand-held team to more clearly focus on navigating this fast-paced market while PSG continues to accelerate its trend of profitable growth."

In the last fiscal year, HP reported revenues of $86.7 billion.

-- from staff and wire reports

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