HP made a series of announcements recently marking the international expansion of its digital photography business and its efforts to further accelerate the photo industry’s transformation from analog to digital technologies.
The news, announced at the Photokina tradeshow in Germany, Cologne, includes the expansion of HP’s online and retail photo businesses in Europe; an addition to its retail photo printing portfolio; and new professional photo-printing systems with industry-leading color output and management capabilities.
Collectively, these products, services and partners’ efforts enable new experiences for all of HP’s photography customers – from consumers, hobbyists and professionals to
retailers and print service providers.
“With our recent announcements, HP is moving significantly closer to realizing the next phase of our vision for creating an all-digital photography marketplace,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “HP is the only company with the depth and breadth of offerings to aggressively transform the photography industry in order to enable more compelling, personal and memorable experiences in markets around the world.”
Growing retail and online photo businesses internationally
Linking consumers’ home and online photography experiences to retail, HP has signed
two deals with Jessops, the United Kingdom’s No. 1 photography retailer and now one
of the first to install the HP Photosmart Studio on a trial basis outside of North America.
The HP Photosmart Studio is the only in-store offering where consumers can design
creative products in about five minutes – without having to crop or place photos into
individual templates – and then pick them up in one hour or less. With HP’s entry into the
retail photo-printing market in Europe, the company is now competing in the $35 billionplus photo industry on an international scale.
Additionally, Snapfish by HP will host Jessops’ new online photo site – Picture House –
enabling customers to take advantage of Snapfish’s industry-leading online photo service to print, share and store their photos. Jessops customers now have the ability to upload photos to the online photo site and pick up prints at the Jessops store of their choice.
Snapfish also has extended the “Snapfish by HP” brand to 13 of its online photo sites in
Europe, which previously operated under the Pixaco brand. This move makes Snapfish
the No. 1 online photo service brand worldwide. Additionally, Snapfish has begun
rolling out its award-winning online photo capabilities in 14 countries across Europe.
Beginning today in Austria, France and Germany, Snapfish has extended capabilities
such as free online photo sharing and storage – services that are not currently offered by
most European online photo sites.
Transforming the color experience for photography and graphics professionals
HP is changing the way professional photographers, digital fine artists, graphic
designers and prepress professionals create large-format images with the unveiling of the
HP Designjet Z2100 and Z3100 Photo Printer series.
The eight-ink HP Designjet Z2100 and 12-ink Z3100 both provide an automated color
management experience that enables professional photographers to consistently print
museum-quality color and black and white photos up to 44 inches wide.
The HP Designjet Z3100 uses a 12-ink HP Vivera pigment system, including the HP 70 Gloss Enhancer and HP Quad-Black inks to create rich black and white prints and achieve truly neutral grays under different lighting conditions. Both printers also deliver unprecedented photo permanence – up to 200 years – on a wide variety of media.
Graphic professionals can now create color profiles in minutes instead of hours and
receive exact color matches throughout the printing process. Traditionally complex color
management has been streamlined with the first embedded spectrophotometer on a
large format printer, based on X-Rite Eye-One color technology and integrated with an
HP Color Center interface.
The HP Designjet Z2100 and Z3100 Photo Printer series are also the first large-format
printers to leverage HP’s scalable printing technology to achieve the optimal balance
between speed and image quality.
HP is expanding its media portfolio with 11 new offerings for a total of 30 options,
ranging from photo and digital fine art papers, to backlit, indoor banner and Tyvek.
In addition to its large-format printer line, HP expanded its B-size photo printer portfolio
with the introduction of the HP Photosmart Pro B8350 Photo Printer. This versatile photo printer is ideal for the photo hobbyist who wants to produce 3.5 x 5- inch up to 13 x 19-inch professional lab-quality prints at an affordable price.
Joining the B8350 in the lineup is the HP Photosmart Pro B9180 Photo Printer, which
began shipping this month. The B9180 delivers exceptional image quality at increased speeds and provides the industry’s best photo permanence on a wide variety of HP media with eight-ink color photos that resist fading for more than 200 years.
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $90.0 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.
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About HP Middle East
HP is the largest technology and solutions provider in the Middle East with 670 employees and subsidiaries in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Cairo, Ramallah and Oman servicing the GCC, Egypt and the Levant. HP has been present in the Middle East since 1968 and opened its first regional office in 1994. HP Middle East is the market leader for enterprise, small and medium business and consumer technology products and offers a large portfolio of solutions and services in various business domains.
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