Hewlett-Packard has launched its first digital press, the HP Digital Press 6600, and installed its first machine at UK photofinishing firm Colourcare Group.


"This is a significant announcement for HP, it moves us into the 96% of the print market where we have no presence at the moment," said Paul Bradley, HP European sales and marketing manager for commercial printing solutions.


HP aims to capitalise on its success supplying IT services to the corporate market to help win digital print business.


"One of the big drivers is corporations investing in customer relationship management (CRM)," said Bradley. "Customers tell us they want an end-to-end solution from CRM to print."
The firm also believes its sRGB standardised colourspace and recent adoption of PDF will make the transfer of jobs from a corporate to a commercial print environment cheaper and more reliable.


"We are uniquely positioned to tie together two aspects of digital print," Bradley said. "Enterprise needs to save money on commercial print and service providers need to offer new services."


HP has alliances with CRM software providers and works with variable data software specialists such as Pageflex and Banta.


It will initially target inplants, of which it estimates there are 10,000 in Europe, although it is also looking to commercial printers as a future market.


The Digital Press 6600 is based on an Indigo TurboStream and will cost between 160,000 and 320,000 depending on configuration.


Colourcare will use the 6600 for the production of estate agents brochures, which it currently produces on a Chromapress.


Story by Barney Cox