Hewlett-Packard says it's only a matter of time before the company returns to the smartphone market it abandoned over a year ago.

Company CEO Meg Whitman made the claims on Fox Business News Today after acknowledging the importance of smartphones in the industry while refusing to condemn the PC business at the same time.

“We have to ultimately offer a smartphone because in many countries of the world that is your first computing device," she says.

"You know, there will be countries around the world where people may never own a tablet, or a PC or a desktop.

"They will do everything on the smartphone.

"We’re a computing company; we have to take advantage of that form factor.

"We did take a detour into smartphones, and we’ve got to get it right this time.

"My mantra to the team is: ‘Better right than faster than we should be there.’

"So we’re working to make sure that when we do this, it will be the right thing for Hewlett-Packard, and we will be successful.”

Despite HP's change of stance, Whitman stressed the company would not be buying struggling Canadian smartphone firm Research In Motion.

To watch the full interview, broke into three sections, click here

Do you think HP can simply hop back onto the smartphone bandwagon? Were they wrong to leave in the first place? Tell us your thoughts below.