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Andy writes about technology with intelligence and insight. He has written for B2B publications, market research firms, and major software and financial companies. Specializing in telecommunications, enterprise software, security, and small-office technology. White papers. Features. Software reviews. Corporate newsletters. Web copy. Blogging.

Hewlett Packard Stays the MFP Course

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has been putting copier/MFP dealers into a bad mood these last two years. At the recent ImageAmericas event, Konica Minolta executives told gathered dealers in Nashville they could make products to compete with HP’s LaserJet 4345mfp, but the subtext was, of course, that may not be the wisest business move.

The view was different at the HP Imaging and Printing conference, held just south of San Francisco in the breathtakingly beautiful Half Moon Bay resort town. The vast Pacific panorama was matched by HP’s enormous unit sales: over 300 million printer devices shipped worldwide, with another 40 to 50 million added to their tally each year. Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of the newly-formed Imaging and Personal Systems group, told analysts that his $24 billion dollar division counts over 100,000 retail outlets worldwide and holds over 9000 patents. We got the picture: a cash generator and a global brand, backed by a deep intellectual property portfolio.

Like Konica Minolta, HP also sees the end of rapid growth in their core business, in its case single-function mono devices. Unlike Konica Minolta, HP talks about “extending the core.” This translates into introducing new low-priced printers and to use its deep corporate resources to sell these devices to “emerging geographies” — principally Brazil, India, Russia and China — at even lower prices. When you’re HP, you can as, Joshi boasted, look at the price structures required to grab markets and then develop business models and products. Not every company has that luxury.