The company says its new product line and Print 2.0 strategy is all about repositioning the company from being "the leaders of the printer market to the leaders in printing."
As such, HP's new printer line up includes a Smart Web Printing tool to help consumers print from websites, without printing ads or any other unnecessary information. The company is also offering more choices in the way consumers can print photos. While there are two new Photosmart home photo printing products, HP also allows consumers to upload digital photos onto its Snapfish website, and through the website order prints, albums and other photo gifts (magnets, canvas prints etc) to be delivered home, or to a retailer such as Harvey Norman.
HP Vice President, Imaging & Printing and Consumer Group, South Pacific, Christoph Schell, said: "HP is creating personal experiences in both the computing and printing markets, continually innovating and designing technology with the consumer at the centre of each stage of product development from choice, through to out of box experiences and ongoing usage."
The new touch-screen Home Photo Center printers come complete with a stylus to edit and personalise photos before printing. HP says they are an industry-first, though whether consumers are looking for a dedicated photo printer is yet to be seen. The company is also launching new all-in-one Photosmart printers, including one model which features a built-in CD/DVD writer.
Apart from the printers, HP has expanded its notebook offering with new special edition notebooks - one with a glossy Mac-like finishes as well as a media centre notebook dubbed "The Dragon." Priced from $4999, the Dragon can be a semi-portable second TV.
In the new Desktop range is the HP Pavilion Elite m9000 series Entertainment Desktop PC and new 22 and 24 widescreen HDMI monitors which can be adjusted for height or orientation. The Elite can play both Blu-ray and HD DVD and is designed to play the latest in graphic games. It also incorporates a one-touch back up solution.
HP is also getting serious about the portable GPS navigation space, its new iPaq 312 Travel Companion is a PDA with mapping and Bluetooth. There is also a more basic PDA model called the iPaq 112 Classic Handheld.
