HP (NYSE HPQ) celebrates 20 years of Deskjet

HP (NYSE HPQ) is out with an intriguing release this morning, touting the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the original HP Deskjet printer. The company is also using the occasion to announce two new Deskjet printers, the HP Deskjet D2500 Printer Series and HP Deskjet F4200 All-in-One Series. The announcement of the new printers includes elements that HP has been emphasizing lately, including Green-related benefits like low power consumption and cartridge recycling options, multiple sizes of cartridges for low-purchase-price and lower-cost-per-page preferences, and better printing from the Internet, as "all new HP Deskjet printers feature the HP Smart Web Printing tool for simple, predictable printing from the web." (See "Smart Web Printing reviewed in WSJ".)

Industry historians, too, will find the 20-year history of the Deskjet quite interesting. It's a timeline with much more detail than most similar pieces include. Must study!

Interesting too, despite the focus on the Deskjet, is the news focus on expanding to retail photo printing, an example being the AP story by Amanda Fehd, "HP Looks to Stores for Inkjet Expansion". There's a tone that home photo printing is in major decline, its golden age having passed some time ago. I'm not sure I'd be quite so harsh.

Five to seven years ago, the majority of digital photos were printed in the home, according to Federico De Silva, an analyst with Gartner. Now 60 percent are printed at retail outlets.
From AP's "HP Looks to Stores for Inkjet Expansion", 2/28/2008