At an event here this week focused on teenagers and technology, Ameer Karim, director of HP's future and innovations group for consumer PCs, said that it plans to introduce a new line of devices this fall that will be designed by teens, for teens.

"We've used this teen council to help us with everything from the design of the products, the user interface and the box design, even including how the Web site will look," Karim said on a panel of executives talking about marketing to the younger generation. Representatives from Sun and Microsoft were also panelists.

"That's a major transformation for a company like HP, which has been much more focused on an older crowd," Karim added.