Wednesday, April 23, 2008

HP rolls out largest printing products offerings

Shanghai, Apr 22 Hewlett-Packard, the largest technology and solutions provider across the globe, has rolled out 25 new-generation printing products and solutions; the company’s largest single offering to date. Comprising of printers, software, and web-based resources, these offerings are aimed at small and medium businesses (SMB’s). The new offerings were announced recently in Shanghai, China, at an event titled, “Business Go Print 2.0,” organized by the company for media persons from the Asia-Pacific region and Japan. The new offerings include two HP LaserJet multifunction printers (MFP’s), an enterprise class scanner for document capture and 3 specialized industry solutions.

Herbert Koeck, H-P vice-president (commercial printing), Asia-Pacific told FE, “These products will enable our SMB customers to have a level playing field against larger-sized competitors by improving their marketing effectiveness, increase productivity, and reduce costs involved in their printing needs.” The roll-out includes first time offerings like Colorsphere, the company’s patented ‘chemically grown’ toner technology that was hitherto found only in H-P’s higher-end printers, across all their color laser printers, including the entry-level ones.

For an SMB customer, this provides access to professional quality prints at a much lower cost. HP has also come out with its first LED (light emitting diodes)-based scanner, moving away from the traditional halogen bulb. LED technology uses much less power and are ever-ready for use, eliminating the waiting time that the halogen bulb-based scanners need. The SMB printing space (including hardware, supplies, and services) has tremendous opportunity for HP’s imaging and printing group valued at $103 billion globally by 2010

Bruce Dahlgren, senior vice president, global enterprise business, imaging and printing group, HP said, “ With all the economic challenges in the world today, customers are looking at printing no longer as an afterthought, but as a strategic opportunity to cut costs. Meanwhile, they recognize that this economic challenge won’t last forever, so the focus is also on how they can optimize and leverage their infrastructure.”

Shaheen Mansuri
Financial Express.com; Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008