HP takes aim at leisure consumer electronics

Vendor moves from home office to living room with new product launches

Miya Knights, vnunet.com 27 Aug 2004

Hewlett Packard is looking to make a splash in the consumer market with a customisable iPod, media centre-inspired notebook and its first leisure consumer electronics products.

In the home entertainment arena, the long-awaited unveiling of the Apple iPod + HP, as it will be known when it becomes available from HP's online store and select US retailers in September, will be interoperable with HP printers, removing the need to upload from the iPod to a PC before printing.

HP Printable Tattoos will enable users to personalise the look of their iPods with album art, while the HP-branded iPod will also come bundled with special offers accessible through Apple's music download site, iTunes. A 20GB iPod + HP will cost $299 (£166), while a 40GB model will retail for $399 (£223) more.

Carly Fiorina, HP president and chief executive, said the vendor was about to move from the home office into the living room.

"We are moving into an era where technology is democratising creativity. We are moving into an era of digital, virtual, mobile and personal experience," she said.

HP's flagship Digital Home Entertainment Centre features a digital video recorder, DVD player and burner, and a removable digital storage unit for storing and transferring movies, pictures or music.

The centre will be available in the the next couple of months, priced from $800.

HP has also released a 26in and 30in LCD TV, and a 42in high-definition or enhanced-definition plasma screen TV, for between $2,500 and $5,000. The 42in flat panel will cost $2,999, with a high-definition version selling for $4,999.

The company's new Instant Cinema Digital Projector ep9010 portable system also contains a DVD projector, as well as 5.1 Dolby surround sound that works independently of a computer, for around $2,000.

Also newly released is a converged home entertainment notebook, HP Pavilion dv1000, priced at $1,149. The notebook features Intel's Centrino mobile technology, and allows the user to watch DVDs and listen to music without booting up the entire system, thus cutting start-up time from two minutes to eight seconds.

In digital photography, where HP already has a strong presence, its new offerings include a whole range of new portable, all-in-one and photo-specific printers and ink aimed at making home photography more affordable.

The company also introduced its first portable, battery-operated photo printer, the Photosmart 375 ($249.99 inc. battery). The printer produces 4in x 6in prints and can receive photos uploaded from the iPod or via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

The Photosmart 8450 printer can also print pictures directly from a digital camera or memory card, with no PC needed. The printer, which costs $299, has its very own mini print-preview display.

These new photographic and audio-visual products are aimed at boosting HP's home entertainment portfolio in the face of particularly disappointing recent third-quarter performances in its storage and server divisions.

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