HP Unveils Print 2.0 – a New Era for Printing

HP today introduced a breakthrough printing technology, new web-based printing services, an expanded portfolio of printers and imaging products, and a host of alliances and relationships that serve the growing markets outlined in the company’s Print 2.0 strategy.

In conjunction with the announcements, the company unveiled a $300 million global marketing campaign, called “What do you have to say?,” that enables users to mash up their content with free, exclusive content from singer/fashion designer Gwen Stefani, Burton Snowboards founder Jake Burton and celebrated graphic designer Paula Scher.

HP’s Print 2.0 strategy focuses on three areas: delivering a next-generation digital printing platform that increases print speeds and lowers the cost of printing for high-volume commercial markets; making it easier to print from the web; and extending HP’s digital content creation and publishing platforms across all customer segments.

HP is executing Print 2.0 while continuing to drive innovation across its core printing business – an overall strategy designed to accelerate the company’s ability to capture a more significant portion of the 53 trillion pages expected to be printed by 2010.

“Today we’re igniting growth across every single part of our business and introducing market-leading imaging and printing solutions for consumers, small and medium businesses, the graphic arts community and enterprise customers,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “With Print 2.0, we’re leveraging the power of the web as a gateway for our customers to communicate, collaborate and publish their content in ways they could not before.”

With Print 2.0, HP is embedding print services in popular websites, making it easier for people to print usable pages. To this end, HP has formed alliances with Flickr, Windows® Live Spaces and Yahoo!.

Highlights include:

• Flickr plans to integrate HP’s Tabblo technology with its site this fall to help members create highly customized print “products” such as photo books, collages and photo cubes. Flickr members will have the option of repurposing their photos for quick and convenient home printing or ordering their own high-quality book or poster through a service provider that uses the latest HP Indigo digital press technology for offset-quality professional results.
• Snapfish has been selected by Microsoft to provide online printing capabilities for customers of Windows Live Spaces, part of the Windows Live suite of services. Through this alliance, Snapfish and Spaces customers get the best of both worlds – all the community sharing features in Spaces combined with Snapfish’s superb online printing capabilities. Windows Live Spaces users will be able to easily print both their albums and their friends’ albums posted on Spaces with their Snapfish accounts.
• The HP Yahoo! Printing Toolbar gives users “one click” access to free online classes, printing tips, creative projects, customer support and special offers as well as the ability to download the HP SmartWeb Printing utility, which makes it easier to print from the web. The toolbar is expected to be available for free download in September and included as an option on the driver for HP’s consumer inkjet printers, cameras and scanners beginning this spring.
• Additionally, the company unveiled the HP Print It! button, a visual cue to web surfers everywhere that a superior printing experience is available – thanks to free HP technologies like the Tabblo Print Toolkit. When users click the HP Print It! button, they can expect an attractively formatted document designed for printing – with content that is relevant, organized and positioned in a way that maximizes space on the page and minimizes waste.

Patrick Scaglia, chief technology officer of the Imaging and Printing Group at HP, launched a Print 2.0 blog, which is designed to cover all topics related to the company’s imaging and printing strategy. The blog is available at www.hp.com/go/print20.