HP's Plan To Primp The Printer
Tuesday, June 23, 2009SUSIE GHARIB: It's one of the most common items of office equipment, the printer and chances are, you don't give it much thought. Hewlett- Packard wants to change that. For want of a better word, it's trying to make the printer sexy. Our technology guru Scott Gurvey got a preview of a new technology that HP says will shake up the world of printers.
SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The dream for any company is to expand its market with a product that attracts new customers. Hewlett-Packard thinks it will do just that with its latest printer. Believed to be the first which can directly access the Internet to gather information from content providers, the Photosmart premium with Touchsmart won't go on sale until the fall. But we were given an early peek. You browse on the printer's touch screen to connect with special printer applications, a little like the Apple iPhone's apps. For example, an app delivers content from "USA Today." Newspapers could charge for this service as they struggle to find a new business model. HP VP Vyomesh Joshi believes this product turns the computer printer into a household appliance.
VYOMESH JOSHI, EXEC. VP, IMAGING & PRINTING GROUP, HP: I think in my mind this is where the world is going. We are moving from printer to printing. So think of about having that capability in all the homes. So basically when Guttenberg invented the printing and the press, now we have all these little presses in all the homes and all the content which is created.
GURVEY: An app from Coupons, Inc. let's you select and print store discount coupons. This let's advertisers reach an audience already predisposed to buy. An app from Dreamworks prints coloring pages for kids and also helps Dreamworks promote its films. The printer can also receive web feeds and blogs and any content provider can write and distribute its own print app. Theater tickets, maps and driving directions and recipes are some of the others apps being prepared. Analyst Robert Chira says with 40 percent of the printer market, HP faces a challenge.
ROBERT CHIRA, TECHNOLOGY ANALYST, CARIS & CO.: They already have so much market share. They really need to grow the entire printing market, I mean that's really their hope anyway. And I know, it remains to be seen, they think they can do that. I'm not 100 percent sure if the printer market is ever really a real growth market long term.
GURVEY: The web enabled printer replaces HP's current top-of-the-line all-in-one model at about the same price, $400, clearly not on everybody's home computer budget. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.
