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Hewlett-Packard is now a press manufacturer
March 30, 2008

HP announces new products

When Hewlett-Packard announced that it was purchasing Indigo in 2002, I thought they were just a little crazy. The company had been the leader in laser printers and ink-jet printers in office and consumer markets, but to jump into the fray competing against Heidelberg, Komori and other multi-billion dollar press manufacturers seemed just a bit out of their league.

What happened, of course, is that HP took a major share of the digital printing marketplace. They learned a lot about making the Indigo a better machine, and their batallions of engineers worked tirelessly to raise the bar of competition with the Indigo, forcing the others (Xeikon, NexPress and iGen primarily) to respond. Last week they announced two new Indigo models. One is an improved sheet-fed machine, the other is an improved roll-fed label press.

At a press conference in Tel Aviv, HP Senior VP of Graphics and Imaging Business Steve Nigro made an enthusiastic speech about the company’s new graphic arts products – Indigo, wide-format ink-jet products and supplies, and a new ink-jet web press. Nigro made some bold statements that HP will be the leader in digital printing in the entire industry. I have learned to listen now when representatives of Hewlett-Packard make such utterances. The company obviously has the will, the capital, and the lasting power to be a major player in the printing press industry.

Posted by Brian Lawler on March 30, 2008 | Comments (1)