What an interesting couple of weeks it's been in HP-land.

First, the industry giant unveiled its latest inkjet web press, the T400, which is wider (42 inches or 1,067mm) and as fast as the souped-up, but narrower, T350 model at 600 feet per minute (circa 183 metres per minute).

Then we learn that a HP inkjet web book printing line is at last coming to the UK, hoorah, with CPI continuing with its ambitious digital investment plan. A system based on a T350 will be installed at Antony Rowe later this year. CPI boss Pierre Francois Catté describes digital book production of this ilk as "bringing in a new price/performance ratio" for CPI and its customers. The ambitious roll-out plan for lots and lots of these webs across the CPI manufacturing footprint is indeed happening.

With the new T400 model HP is encroaching further into the world of commercial offset. While still miles slower than web offset as we know it - the T400 can produce just shy of 300,000 A4 pages per hour according to my quick calculations, whereas a 16pp M600 can do getting on for one million (and a 96pp M5000 4.3 million...) - but it's fascinating to see how the technology is becoming more and more industrial and more and more familiar for commercial printers. This latest HP model, for example, includes things like automatic reel changing.

At the T400 launch HP threw up an interesting stat about some 1.46bn pages being produced on its inkjet webs last year. They are making significant inroads into this space, and I was interested to hear Jim Lucanish, president at early adopter customer O'Neil Data Systems, make the following statement. "We can do what 50 cut-sheet presses did with one of these boxes, which is a phenomenal difference." That is indeed an order of magnitude.

I haven't heard much comment about the economics of the inks required, and would like to find out more about that. And as I understand it the T400 can't yet print onto standard coated paper grades although that's in the pipeline.

There's a lot of talk about disruptive technologies in this business, and HP is certainly stirring things up. The firm has also made a lot of progress in a relatively short time in the high-volume inkjet space - the T300 was only shown for the first time at Drupa 2008. I wonder what that billions of pages figure will be by the time of next year's Dusseldorf print extravaganza, and what HP will have in store for the 2012 show?