HP's 'Big Bang' consumer imaging play

At a media event in Shanghai, China, HP announced a major expansion into the
digital photography and digital entertainment segments. HP unveiled a range of
over 30 products, including all-new ones, newer versions, and previews of future
products, to, unusually, a group of journalists largely from lifestyle
publications including Femina and Elle from India, signaling that it wanted to
step out well beyond its traditional technology audience.

The products include:

The new HP Media Center PC, which forms the center of a home entertainment
system. HP demonstrated it in a 'living room' environment, within a
lifestyle store, at the center of a high-end Nakamichi home theater system. The
PC, whose older version is retailed at $999 in the US without display or extra
storage, can support a hot-swap removable disk that packs 160 GB or more, and
connects internally or externally through USB 2.0.

The HP ep9010 Instant Cinema Digital Projector, a rather bulky but all-in-one
unit that integrates a DLP projector, a DVD player, and Harman-Kardon speakers.
The system can also output to 5.1 surround sound to an external speaker system.

The HP Pavilion dv1100 series Entertainment Notebook PC a laptop that
includes a video subsystem that can 'QuickPlay' DVDs and audio without
starting up (i.e. bypassing) the Windows operating system.

New inket print cartridges with 'HP Vivera' inks, rated for over 100
years of color stability (of the color printouts).

A series of photo printers with integrated displays, flash memory slots,
wireless connectivity, and basic editing capability.

A range of digital cameras which include HP-proprietary technologies such as
in-camera panoramic stitching, and in-camera red-eye correction of an existing
image.

LightScribe, a device that laser-inscribes disk labels with text and graphics
directly onto specially coated CD-R and other optical media.

The iPAQ rz1700 series PDAs, with an integrated four-band GSM-GPRS mobile,
camera, Bluetooth, and 802.11b wireless. This iPAQ can receive streaming video
from the HP Media Center, letting you watch movies on it anywhere in the house.

"It's a big shift for HP," HP's APAC Head of the IPG group
Chris Morgan told CyberMedia News, "from our traditional strengths on the
business side, to a strong play for the consumer and mass home market." He
calls it HP's third big bang in imaging: first, HP revamped the consumer
printing lineup; then it 'built up digital photo leadership' and invested
over $100 million in the growing APAC market, and now it's 'making the whole
experience easy and integrated.'

PRASANTO K ROY

SHANGHAI, CHINA

(The author traveled at the hospitality of HP)

NEW PRODUCT PARADE