It aims to do this by making it easier for online users to print content from the web. For HP, it’s a strategy to increase the volume of printing done on its equipment. HP is generating several new services to assist users and is working with developers to make it easier for them to add printing to their websites. In this case, it is not just about printing but selective printing. HP has already worked with the ViaMichelin’s website to offer customers improved map printing by better aligning what is seen on-screen with what is printed on the page. HP has also teamed up with leading web-blog software and services company SixApart, creator of blogging platform Movable Type, to enable bloggers to include a print button on their entries. Movable Type powers many of the world’s most popular blogs.

Real test
HP has tested out the Print 2.0 strategy within its digital photographic imaging business. At this stage, however, no other business within the HP Imaging and Printing Group has implemented anything using the web to enhance operations. This was demonstrated in a question-and-answer session at the conference when seven senior vice presidents were asked how they were using the web to enhance operations. All of them, with the exception of Larry Lesley who heads up digital photo­graphy and entertainment, had no answer. For the six others, Print 2.0 is only a strategy for the future.

As well as focusing on web opportunities, HP has unveiled a range of services aimed at enhancing the print services of various private and government organisations. This is, in reality, to catch up with the offerings of competitors like Kodak, Océ and Xerox.

Do these additions to HP’s offerings have any impact on the graphic arts market? On the web front, probably not. Sophisticated websites, such as HP’s Snapfish photo site, already have advanced printing capabilities that drive print to specific graphic arts companies. Such sites have realised the impact of web-to-print and have already taken advantage of it. At the very least, though, HP hopes that Print 2.0 will retain customers that have its desktop printers – and the colourful websites should help to sell a large volume of HP ink.

Indigo demand
However, HP’s other new services should generate a substantial volume of printing that it hopes will be placed with its HP Indigo customers. As HP does not sell its Indigo presses into most government, corporate or educational organisations, these services are most likely to push work under managed contracts to HP Indigo press users.
This brings up a very interesting question: what impact will HP’s Edgeline inkjet technology, which was recently launched for the HP CM8050/8060 Color Multi Functional Printer (MFP), have on the graphic arts market? The first of a range of new colour printing products to be targeted at the “enterprise” market over the next few years, the CM8050/ 8060 Color MFP is a printer/scanner that runs at around 50ppm and costs in the region of £12,600 ($25,000). The printer produces good quality, although at this stage not as good as the 50ppm xerographic machines from Konica Minolta, Ricoh or Xerox, but it is cheaper than these machines.

Once Edgeline is included, I expect to see a higher-quality version, probably with six colours, a speed of 70ppm and the ability to print a B3 document without slowing down (as the Color MFP does). Such a product could sell for as low as £25,000 and would be of great interest to the graphic arts market. If Edgeline technology is adopted, this could have a significant impact on the graphic arts market. HP maintains that Edgeline is a technology for the “enterprise”, but I think HP’s future may actually lie in a range of products that could attract some genuine attention from the graphic arts market.

30-SECOND BRIEFING ON... HP SCITEX
• HP has unveiled ‘Print 2.0’, a strategy aimed at making printing relevant and ‘empowering’ as content moves from the desktop to the web

• It links up with the new develop­ments on the internet known as Web 2.0. HP’s strategy has been defined as making it easier for web users to print content from the internet. HP is generating a number of new services to assist users and is also working with developers to make it easier for them to add printing options
to their websites

• HP has tested the Print 2.0 strategy within its digital photographic imaging business. At the moment, however, there is no other business within the HP Imaging and Printing Group that has implemented anything using the internet to enhance operations

• Edgeline inkjet technology has been launched for the HP CM8050/8060 Color MFP. It is the first of a range of new colour printing products planned for release over the next few years that are targeted at the “enter­prise” market