The concern for Microsoft will be to retain talent at its new hardware division.
In the mid-1990s, I spoke with the head of I.B.M.'s hardware division about his latest supercomputer.
In the hardware division, mainframe revenue declined 24 percent, and sales of large computers running the Unix operating system fell 10 percent.
So he turned IBM's service organisation, hitherto a sub-unit of the salesforce, and its software business, until then part of the hardware division, into standalone businesses.
Amazon will merge Touchco's technology and staff members into its Kindle hardware division, Lab126, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., this person said.
The bookseller has recently vowed to focus more on digital content, including books, movies and popular apps, while beginning to moderate its investment in its digital hardware division.
The Moto X is the first handset to be built by Motorola since Google bought the company's hardware division last year for $12.5 billion.
In Tuesday's conference call, the chief executive, Lawrence Ellison, said some of the erosion in the hardware division has been by design as Oracle weeded out some of the less profitable equipment.
Treo maker PalmOne came into being through a merger between the hardware division of Palm Inc. and Handspring, both known as makers of personal digital assistants, or P.D.A.'s.
David C. Nagel, chief executive of the Palm software unit, which has not yet announced its new name, said the split from the hardware division would help ease the competitive fears of potential software customers.
Even when space is not an issue, installing a traditional bidet "can't be done without going through major renovations," said David Esbin, the manager of the plumbing and hardware division of Manhattan Center for Kitchen and Bath.
